Who is doing what to whom? Young infants' developing sense of social causality in animated displays.
In two different experiments a visual habituation/dishabituation procedure was used to test groups of 3-10-month-old infants for their ability to discriminate the role reversal of two abstract figures (discs of different colors) chasing each other on a computer screen. Results of the first experiment point to a reliable age effect. Only 8-10-month-old infants tended to dishabituate to a role reversal between chaser and chasee. A second experiment shows that in dishabituating to the role reversal, 8-10-month-olds do base this discrimination on relational information between the two discs and not merely on the contrast between their respective vitality or discrete dynamic. By the age of 8-10 months, infants demonstrate sensitivity to information specifying what one disc does to the other, at a distance. These findings point to important changes in perceptual-cognitive development and are discussed in the context of a well described key transition in social-cognitive development occurring at around 9 months of age.
Rochat
Philippe
P
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. psypr@emory.edu
Striano
Tricia
T
Morgan
Rachel
R
D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011601:Psychophysics; D012380:Role