In six pages this paper examines the possibility that within extremely young infants, thought processes exist. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
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occurring in the infants mind, but what those might be had remained mere speculation. Some of the early theories have been borne out, while others have been dismissed with the
advent of technologies. All of them still ask the same question, however: What do babies think about? Obviously, part of the thought process must revolve around the instinctual need
for the basics of life, such as food, physical comfort and the need for sleep. What has not always been obvious, however, are those in between times when the infant
(birth to one year of age) is in a wakeful state. Erik Erikson stated that the early stage of infancy was devoted almost entirely to a building and development
of trust for his caregivers. In turn, this trust in his caregivers is transferred to a trust in himself as well, since he is able to communicate on a basic
level with his caregiver and therefore have some control over his environment. A good deal of thought, then, could be going into how he might accomplish or elicit the responses
he desires. This trial and error thought process is a very likely candidate, one should think. Sadly, Erikson also notes that those infants whose needs are not met and who
are not shown affection, will develop a deep seated sense of mistrust and a type of general apathy sets in that may never be undone. In these instances, states Erikson,
if the mistrust is severe enough the child will give up ever having his needs met and may internalize that his very existence is not meaningful.
Since one cannot remember their childhood, because information was processed and stored differently, most cannot remember their infancy. However, working backward from Eriksons model to