Infants expect agents to minimize the collective cost of collaborative actions

Mascaro, Olivier; Csibra, Gergely

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-21452-5

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…35) which indicate that from 8 months children recognize the limits of the boundaries of their action capabilities and can request help from an adult. However, findings of studies that have investigated how children develop an understanding of joint tasks [4,16,17] have not provided a clear picture of whether children understand the consequences in terms of physical effort of engaging in joint actions. Based on our results, children naturally expect their partners to either make a maximal contribution, giving their best effort, or to contribute in a way that is proportional or contingent on the amount of effort the child themselves can put forth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High-cost helping was greater under conditions of increased motivational benefits. Similarly, a recent study [17] assessed whether infants apply expectations of efficiency to collaborative interactions between multiple agents. 14-month-olds familiarized with computer animations of agents performing collaborative actions looked longer at test events that violated expectations of collective efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cost-benefits analysis of joint actions; children and adults estimate the potential effort of acting together.

Speranza,

Ramenzoni

2023

Preprint

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Every day we engage in activities that require collaboration and assistance from others. Social interactions with children are distinct because they frequently result in partners contributing different amounts of effort. This study investigates the decision-making processes underpinning joint actions; specifically, whether children and adults estimate they will have to invest different amounts of effort when engaging in joint tasks compared to doing the same task by themselves. In 4 Experiments, children and adults estimated the weight of objects when they anticipated that they would be lifted alone and when they thought they would have help. Children and adults estimated the weight of 3 clear baskets carrying different weights (light, medium, and heavy). The estimated weight of objects varied for adults and children depending on whether they thought they would lift alone or together. Children reliably perceived objects as lighter when they expected help from their parent compared to lifting them alone or with the help of a sibling. Parents, in turn, estimated objects would be heavier when they were helping their child. Overall, results suggest that we analyze the costs and benefits of helping another person and the social bond we have with them before engaging in joint actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost-benefits analysis of joint actions; children and adults estimate the potential effort of acting together.

Speranza,

Ramenzoni

2023

Preprint

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“…Agents directing their efforts toward a shared goal should behave in a coefficient way that minimizes aggregate, not individual, action costs (Török et al 2019). Preliminary research suggests that, when presented with two agents coordinating, infants do not hold expectations of individual efficiency, but of joint efficiency (Begus et al 2020, Mascaro & Csibra 2022. Importantly, much like in helping, the efficiency of joint action can warrant an asymmetric distribution of effort, such that one agent reduces aggregate costs by reducing the partner's effort at the expense of her own and thus acts in a locally helpful way toward the other within the joint-action context (Török et al 2021).…”

Section: Infants Conceive Helping As Joint Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Representation of Third-Party Helping Interactions in Infancy

Schlingloff-Nemecz

Tatone

Csibra

2023

Annu. Rev. Dev. Psychol.

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Despite numerous findings on the sophisticated inferences that human infants draw from observing third-party helping interactions, currently there is no theoretical account of how infants come to understand such events in the first place. After reviewing the available evidence in infants, we describe an account of how human adults understand helping actions. According to this mature concept, helping is a second-order, goal-directed action aiming to increase the utility of another agent (the Helpee) via reducing the cost, or increasing the reward, of the Helpee's own goal-directed action. We then identify the cognitive prerequisites for conceiving helping in this way and ask whether these are available to infants in the interpretation of helping interactions. In contrast to the mature concept, we offer two simpler alternatives that may underlie the early understanding of helping actions: ( a) helping as enabling, which requires second-order goal attribution but no utility calculus, and ( b) helping as joint action, which requires efficiency (i.e., utility) evaluation without demanding second-order goal attribution. We evaluate the evidence supporting these accounts, derive unique predictions from them, and describe what developmental pathway toward the mature concept they envisage. We conclude the article by outlining further open questions that the developmental literature on the interpretation of helping interactions has not yet addressed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 5 is December 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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“…Agents directing their efforts toward a shared goal should behave in a co-efficient way that minimizes aggregate, not individual, action costs (Török et al, 2019). Preliminary research suggests that, when presented with two agents coordinating, infants do not hold expectations of individual, but of joint efficiency (Begus et al, 2020;Mascaro & Csibra, 2022). Importantly, much like in helping, the efficiency of joint action can warrant an asymmetric distribution of effort, such that one agent reduces aggregate costs by reducing the partner's effort at the expense of her own, and thus acts in a "locally helpful" way towards the other within the joint-action context (Török et al, 2021).…”

Section: Infants Conceive Helping As Joint Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Representation of Third-Party Helping Interactions in Infancy

Schlingloff¹,

Tatone²,

Csibra³

2023

Preprint

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Despite the numerous findings on the sophisticated inferences that human infants draw from observed third-party helping interactions, currently there is no theoretical account of how they come to understand such events in the first place. After reviewing the available evidence in infants, we describe an account of how human adults understand helping actions. According to this mature concept, helping is a second-order goal-directed action aiming to increase the utility of another agent (the helpee) via reducing the cost, or increasing the reward, of the helpee’s own goal-directed action. We then identify the cognitive prerequisites for conceiving helping this way and ask whether these are available to infants in the interpretation of helping interactions. In contrast to the mature concept, we offer two simpler alternatives that may underlie the early understanding of helping actions: (i) helping as enabling, which requires second-order goal attribution but no utility calculus, and (ii) helping as joint action, which requires efficiency (i.e., utility) evaluation without demanding second-order goal attribution. We evaluate the evidence supporting these accounts, derive unique predictions from them, and describe what developmental pathway towards the mature concept they envisage. We conclude the article by outlining further open questions that the developmental literature on the interpretation of helping interactions has not yet addressed.

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Infants expect agents to minimize the collective cost of collaborative actions

Cited by 5 publications

References 61 publications

Cost-benefits analysis of joint actions; children and adults estimate the potential effort of acting together.

Cost-benefits analysis of joint actions; children and adults estimate the potential effort of acting together.

The Representation of Third-Party Helping Interactions in Infancy

The Representation of Third-Party Helping Interactions in Infancy

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