The link between infant attention to goal-directed action and later theory of mind abilities.
Dev Sci
; 11(6): 862-8, 2008 Nov.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19046155
ABSTRACT
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.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Atenção
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Percepção Visual
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Desenvolvimento Infantil
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Comportamento do Lactente
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Formação de Conceito
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Compreensão
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2008
Tipo de documento:
Article