January 26, 2012

Raphael: Artist, Scientist, Dreamer

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:09 pm by laura

I know … two posts in one week, what’s going on?  Well there were a few fun things this week and I couldn’t resist sharing.

First, Raphael had his first art project at daycare!  Perhaps the term “art” is taking some liberties, but here is Raphael gettin’ down with some fingerpaint.

Artist at work

The key is really connecting with your materials

Right now, I feel his style is rather reminiscent of Mark Rothko, but perhaps with a looser brushstroke:

   

Mark Rothko, 1958: Four Darks in Red

Raphael Strudwick, 2012: Four Lights in Green

Also, just yesterday, Raphael participated in his very first Psychology experiment!  In the experiment, he sat on my lap and looked at different cartoons on a very large computer screen.  The researcher was investigating how well he understood certain types of social categories (he doesn’t), by measuring how long he looks at different parts of the screen.  The idea is that if he understands a certain rule or concept, he will tend to be surprised when that rule is violated (e.g. hey, why is one of the smurf people doing a muppet thing??).  You can tell when a baby is surprised because they will tend to look at the surprising thing longer to try to figure out what is happening.  Here is Raphael doing the experiment:

Raphael doing the experiment

I’m not sure how he did, but I had to keep my eyes closed the entire time so I wouldn’t inadvertently cue him to the social rule violations.  For his participation, he earned $5.00 (his first income!) and a t-shirt:

Raphael with the $5 he earned as a research volunteer

Raphael's new "Child Scientist" t-shirt (veritas)

Yay, Raphael!

Finally, after we came home from the Psychology department, Raphael achieved mobility by systematically rotating his body.  It was the only way he could get to the other side of the bed to play his favorite iPad game, “Tap Tap Baby”:

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