title: Action production influences 12-month-old infants' attention to others' actions.
abstract: Recent work implicates a link between action control systems and action understanding. In this study, we investigated the role of the motor system in the development of visual anticipation of others' actions. Twelve-month-olds engaged in behavioral and observation tasks. Containment activity, infants' spontaneous engagement in producing containment actions; and gaze latency, how quickly they shifted gaze to the goal object of another's containment actions, were measured. Findings revealed a positive relationship: infants who received the behavior task first evidenced a strong correlation between their own actions and their subsequent gaze latency of another's actions. Learning over the course of trials was not evident. These findings demonstrate a direct influence of the motor system on online visual attention to others' actions early in development.
authors.affiliation: Human Development Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. ecannon@umd.edu
authors.forename: Erin N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Cannon
authors.forename: Amanda L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.forename: Gustaf
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gredebäck
authors.forename: Claes
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: von Hofsten
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Turek
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010988:Play and Playthings; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011597:Psychomotor Performance