This study examined whether young children are able to imitate a robot's goal‐directed actions. Children (24–35 months old) viewed videos showing a robot attempting to manipulate an object (e.g., putting beads inside a cup) but failing to achieve its goal (e.g., beads fell outside the cup). In 1 video, the robot made eye contact with a human before and after it failed the action. In another video, the robot did not make eye contact with the human adult. Only in the former condition did children “imitate” the robot's “intended” but unconsummated actions (e.g., putting beads inside a cup). When the robot did not make eye contact, children performed poorly, at the baseline level. These results suggest that human‐like gaze behaviors, not human‐like morphology, may play an important role in young children's imitation of a nonhuman agent's goal‐directed behaviors.

Two habituation experiments investigated 10-month-old infants' interpretation of events where a stationary object began to move without any visible causes. During habituation, infants saw that an object partly hidden by an occluder began to move away from the occluder. Then, they were tested with three test events without the occluder: the first event showed a hand pushing the object, the second event showed a hand failing to touch the object, and the last event had no agent. The objects were a ball in Experiment 1, and a person in Experiment 2. The test event that the infants looked at for the shortest duration in Experiment 1 was where the hand pushed the ball, whereas they looked at the three test events almost equal amounts of time in Experiment 2. These results indicate that 10-month-old infants responded to the events in terms of causality and could infer the presence of the agent behind the occluder only when they saw the habituation event featuring the ball.

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BackgroundThe present study examines gender differences in the correlations between intelligence and developmental problems as well as social competence in first graders.MethodsNinety parent-child dyads participated in this study. The children comprised 7-year-olds recruited from the first grade of an elementary school. All the children were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition (WISC-III), Parent-child Interaction Rating Scale (IRS), and the parent report version of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).ResultsThe findings clarified that the processing speed of boys significantly correlated with their peer relationship. On the other hand, the emotional symptoms exhibited by girls had a more common association with their intellectual abilities. The correlations between parenting and intellectual abilities differed in boys and girls.ConclusionsChildren’s gender should be taken into account when assessing the diversity in their intellectual abilities and developmental problems. Moreover, parenting also influences the development of children in various ways.

Two habituation experiments investigated 9-11-month-old infants' reasoning about causality in anomalous human movements. During habituation, infants saw an event in which a person walked toward a stationary person behind an occluder who fell down after an interval. Then, the infants were tested with two events without the occluder: the contact event in which the first person pushed the second one to fall down and the no-contact event in which the second person fell down without any contact. In Experiment 1, in which the persons were face-to-back, infants looked at the no-contact event for a longer time, whereas in Experiment 2, in which the persons were face-to-face, they looked at both the events for equal duration. Thus, infants considered it unnatural when a person fell down without external force in the absence of any action from a distance (e.g. communication). Infants seem to apply the physical contact principles to human movements in certain cases.