The link between infant attention to goal-directed action and later theory of mind abilities.
Various studies have shown that infants in their first year of life are able to interpret human actions as goal-directed. It is argued that this understanding is a precondition for understanding intentional actions and attributing mental states. Moreover, some authors claim that this early action understanding is a precursor of later Theory of Mind (ToM) development. To test this, we related 6-month-olds' performance in an action interpretation task to their performance in ToM tasks at the age of 4 years. Action understanding was assessed using a modified version of the Woodward-paradigm (Woodward, 1999). At the age of 4 years, the same children were tested with the German version of the ToM scale developed by Wellman and Liu (2004). Results revealed a correlation between infants' decrement of attention to goal-directed action and their ability to solve a false belief task at the age of 4 years with no modulation by language abilities. Our results indicate a link between infant attention to goal-directed action and later theory of mind abilities.
Aschersleben
Gisa
G
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Munich, Germany. aschersleben@mx.uni-saarland.de
Hofer
Tanja
T
Jovanovic
Bianca
B
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*