Choi Y, Luo Y, Baillargeon R. Can 5-month-old infants consider the perspective of a novel eyeless agent? New evidence for early mentalistic reasoning.
Child Dev 2021;
93:571-581. [PMID:
34766636 DOI:
10.1111/cdev.13707]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2020] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Is early reasoning about an agent's knowledge best characterized by a mentalistic stance, a teleological stance, or both? In this research, 5-month-old infants (N = 64, 50% female, 83% White) saw a novel eyeless agent consistently approach object-A as opposed to object-B. Although infants could always see both objects, a screen separated object-B from the agent. When object-B protruded above the screen, infants interpreted the agent's actions as revealing a preference for object-A over object-B. When object-B did not protrude above the screen, however, infants refrained from attributing such a preference: Consistent with mentalistic accounts, they reasoned that the agent's representation of the scene did not include object-B, and they used the agent's incomplete representation, non-egocentrically, to interpret its actions.
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