嬰兒向父母學習幽默 一歲就有幽默感

Children get their sense of humour from their parents as a study has found babies as young as six months learn to laugh at the same thing as their mothers and fathers.

Researchers discovered that between the ages of six months and one year, small children learn what is absurdly funny by watching the reaction of their parents.

A study of 30 children carried out by Dr Gina Mireault of Johnson State College and Dr John Sparrow at the University of New Hampshire, in America, involved recording the reaction of babies watching normal and absurd events.

The project explored whether 6-month-olds look to their parents for emotional guidance during absurd events, a phenomenon known as 'social referencing'.

It is known that eight month old babies look to their parents to establish if a situation is threatening or to be feared but it was not known if social referencing ocurred earlier or in other situations.

Other research has found that 18-mon-old babies can make jokes with other toddlers before they can talk by making gestures, noises and shared play.

In the latest study, babies watched their parent react naturally to two ordinary events, looking at a picture book and being shown a small red foam ball.

The events were then changed so that they became absurd: The open picture book was bounced on the researcher’s head while she said, “Zoop, Zoop” and the foam ball was placed on the researcher’s nose while she poked it and said, “Beep, Beep”.

Parents were instructed to either stare at the researcher with an expressionless face or to point and laugh at her.

The study found that, although 6-month-old babies stared longer at the absurd events, showing that these were unfamiliar to them, their reactions to the events did not depend on their parents’ reactions.

However, babies watched their parents closely when they laughed. The combination of paying close attention to absurd events and to others laughing at those events might explain how babies develop the sophisticated sense of humour they possess at 12 months, the researchers said.

By their first birthdays, infants laughed at the absurd events, even when their parents remained expressionless.

Dr Mireault said: "By 12 months, infants seem to have had just enough life experience to make up their own minds – at least about what is absurdly funny.”孩子的幽默感是從父母那裏習得的，一項研究發現，六月大的嬰兒就能學會對父母感到好笑的東西發笑。

研究人員發現，在寶寶六月至一歲大時，他能通過觀看父母的反應知道什麼是荒謬可笑的。

約翰森州立學院的吉娜•米瑞奧爾特博士和新罕布什爾大學的約翰•斯派若博士在美國對30個小孩進行了研究，並將這些小孩觀看正常和可笑行爲的反應記錄下來。

該項目探討六月大的嬰兒在看到可笑事情時是否向父母尋求情感引導，這種現象叫作“社會參照”。

人們知道，八月大的嬰兒會觀察父母，看情勢是否險惡或可怕，但是人們不知道社會參照現象是否在嬰兒更小的時候就出現了，或是在其他情況下也會發生。

其他研究發現，18月大的嬰兒在能通過比手勢、發出聲音、一起玩遊戲來交流之前，就會和其他幼童開玩笑。

在一項最新研究中，研究者讓嬰兒觀察自己的父母對兩個普通事情的自然反應——讓父母和嬰兒看一本圖畫書，然後讓他們看一個紅色的小泡沫塑料球。

接下來事情發生了變化，變得荒謬可笑起來：打開的圖畫書敲打在研究人員的腦袋上，研究人員還一面叫着“祖撲，祖撲”；泡沫塑料球放在研究人員的鼻子上，她一邊戳這個球，一邊還叫道“嗶撲，嗶撲”。

按指示，父母們面無表情地盯着研究人員，或者指着她大笑。

研究發現，儘管6月大的嬰兒盯着可笑事情的時間更長，表現出對這種事情不熟悉，但他們對事情的反應不取決於父母的反應。

但是，在父母笑的時候，嬰兒會仔細觀察自己的父母。研究人員說，嬰兒會高度關注可笑的事情，以及他人對這種事情發笑的行爲，這也許能解釋嬰兒爲什麼會在12月大時產生複雜的幽默感。

在嬰兒滿一歲時，他們會對可笑的事情發笑，即使父母們對此面無表情。

米瑞奧爾特博士說：“在嬰兒滿12月時，他們似乎已經擁有足夠的生活經驗，能夠自己做出決定——至少是能夠判斷什麼事情是荒謬可笑的。”