title: The mentalistic basis of core social cognition: experiments in preverbal infants and a computational model.
abstract: Evaluating individuals based on their pro- and anti-social behaviors is fundamental to successful human interaction. Recent research suggests that even preverbal infants engage in social evaluation; however, it remains an open question whether infants' judgments are driven uniquely by an analysis of the mental states that motivate others' helpful and unhelpful actions, or whether non-mentalistic inferences are at play. Here we present evidence from 10-month-olds, motivated and supported by a Bayesian computational model, for mentalistic social evaluation in the first year of life.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/rD_Ry5oqCYE.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Kiley Hamlin
authors: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
authors: Tomer
authors: T
authors: Ullman
authors: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
authors: Josh
authors: J
authors: Tenenbaum
authors: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, USA.
authors: Noah
authors: N
authors: Goodman
authors: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Baker
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002657:Child Development; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception