A recent study has shown that babies as young as twelve months old have a basic understanding of probability.

How did researchers come to this conclusion? They ran a bunch of twelve- and fourteen-month-olds through a series of tests. First, they gave the babies both a black and a pink lollipop and recorded the preference of the baby. Once the preference was recorded, the babies were let go and then brought back at a later date for a second test.

The second test involved showing the babies two clear jars—one of which contained many pink lollipops and only a few black ones, the other containing many black lollipops but few pink ones. With the babies still watching, a researcher reached a hand into each jar and pulled out a lollipop, but concealed with their hand the color of the candy. They dropped the lollipops into separate opaque cups so that the babies still couldn’t see the color, then asked them to choose one of the cups.

The cool thing? The babies consistently chose the cup belonging to the more “likely” jar. That is, they selected the cup that belonged to the candy drawn from the jar containing the greatest number of the babies’ preferred lollipop color. From the article, “this indicates that many kids, even when they’re very young, are able to make the mental connection that a random lollipop picked from a jar that had more pink lollipops, is more likely to be pink than one picked from a jar containing mostly black lollipops.”

How cool is that?