Object–person discrimination and communication at 3 and 10 months.

Abstract

Over's (1979, 1981) procedure for studying infant discrimination using a signal detection analysis of observers' ratings of infant behavior was followed to test the Trevarthen-Brazelton claims that 3-month-olds distinguish people from objects and nonverbally communicate with familiar caregivers. The two groups of observers-parents and undergraduates-could judge from videotaped samples of 3-and 10-month-old infants' behavior if the infants were alone or otherwise, with something that was active or passive, and if they were greeting or withdrawing. Observers could only judge whether the infants were with their mother or an object for the 10-month-olds. The greeting-withdrawal results seem to indicate that 3-month-olds dp communicate with their caregivers except that the observers were also able to judge greeting-withdrawal when the infants were with an object. There were no sensitivity differences between the two observer groups, although the parents were biased to expect the infants to be with mother and to be greeting.

On the Birth and Growth of Concepts

“…Interaction between objects is expressed by LINK, representing a category of interactions, such as linked paths, as when two objects follow a common path or 'chase' each other, or back and forth interactions, as in turn-taking (Mandler, 1992). Infants begin to treat objects that interact with them in a contingent fashion as animates at least from 2-3 months of age-for example, they smile at them (Frye, Rawling, Moore, & Myers, 1983;Murray & Trevarthen, 1985;Watson, 1972). The temporal element in interactions such as turn-taking is, of course, not itself spatial.…”

The Reaction of 9- to 10-Month-Old Infants to an Unfamiliar Animal

“…the last third or quarter of the infant's first year of life is still believed to be a turning point, during which a richer and more adequate comprehension of what a person is seems to emerge in an unequivocal way (Frye, Rawling, Moore, & Myers, 1983), along with the infant's possible first "theories of mind" (Bretherton, 1991;Bretherton, McNew, & Beeghly-Smith, 1981;Reddy, 1991;Wellman, in press).…”

The spatial foundations of the conceptual system

“…Even when acuity is no longer a problem, they attend to whether or not objects move by themselves, whether they interact with other objects and the kinds of paths they take (e.g. Arterberry and Bornstein 2001;Frye et al 1983;Leslie 1982). Perhaps because of the focus of attention on movement, infants as old as 5 to 7 months often do not attend to the details of what objects look like when they watch events, remembering instead actions or movements in space (Bahrick et al 2002;Perone et al 2008).…”