Do infants need social cognition to act socially? An alternative look at infant pointing.
Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) present a comprehensive review of the infant pointing literature. They conclude that infant pointing demonstrates communicative intent from its onset, at about 1 year of age. In this commentary, it is noted that for infants to understand communicative intent, they must have a concept of self and others as intentional agents. Evidence is reviewed to argue that this is not possible until 18-24 months of age. A leaner explanation of how infants might initially succeed in pointing tasks without understanding communicative intent is considered.
D'Entremont
Barbara
B
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. bdentrem@unb.ca
Seamans
Elizabeth
E
D003071:Cognition; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D033182:Intention; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception