When researcher Karen Wynn showed 4-month-old infants a numerically impossible outcome,the infants

A) stared longer at the outcome.
B) displayed rapid imprinting.
C) demonstrated an obvious lack of object permanence.
D) showed signs of formal operational reasoning.

The research shows that when presented with a numerically impossible outcome, infants tend to stare longer, indicating that they are surprised and detecting a violation of their expectations. This suggests that infants possess some basic understanding of numerical concepts, such as that objects should not appear or disappear spontaneously. The other choices are not supported by the research. Rapid imprinting is not related to this study, object permanence is a separate concept, and formal operational reasoning is a much higher level of cognitive ability that develops much later in life.