Relationships between declarative pointing and theory of mind abilities in 3- to 4-year-olds

Cochet, Hélène; Jover, Marianne; Rizzo, Cécile; Vauclair, Jacques

doi:10.1080/17405629.2016.1205975

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Showing, offering, and declarative pointing have all been reported in systematic studies of ape communication (e.g., Hyatt & Hopkins, 1998;Lyn et al, 2011;Russell et al, 1997); thus, declarative communication is characteristic of apes. Cochet et al (2017) found no significant relationship between declarative-expressive pointing and the development of theory-of-mind capacities in 3-4-year-old children. The idea that declarative pointing indicates that the signaler is representing the contents of others' minds is unverifiable-there is nothing that an observer can objectively measure to confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis that a creature represents others' minds while they point (Leavens et al, 2019).…”

Section: Box 1 Declarative Pointing Is Cognitively Simplementioning

confidence: 56%

The Referential Problem Space revisited: An ecological hypothesis of the evolutionary and developmental origins of pointing

Leavens

2021

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Pointing by great apes poses a significant challenge to contemporary theories about the evolutionary and developmental foundations of cognitive development, because pointing has long been viewed by theoreticians as an evolved, human-unique developmental stepping-stone to linguistic reference. Although reports of pointing by great apes have existed in the scientific literature for over a century, only in recent decades has it become clear that ape pointing is definitely an intentionally communicative signal, by the same criteria we adjudge human pointing to be intentionally communicative. Theoretical responses to this changed empirical landscape have generally taken the approach of asserting, without any direct evidence (indeed, in the absence of any possibility of direct evidence), that pointing by humans is psychologically distinct from and more cognitively complex than the pointing of apes. It is commonplace in the contemporary literature to appeal to imaginary, speciesunique causal factors to account for human pointing, rendering a large body of contemporary theoretical work untestable with scientific methods: scientific arguments require the public availability of core theoretical entities. In this paper, I will analyze the circumstances of pointing by apes and humans and develop an alternative theoretical model of pointing that does not rely upon non-physical constructs. According to the view espoused, here, pointing develops as a solution to a particular kind of developmental problem, characterized by (a) a developing capacity for tool use, (b) barriers to direct action, and (c) a history of caregiver responsiveness. Pointing by both apes and humans is explicable without invoking imaginary, mental causes.

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Section: Box 1 Declarative Pointing Is Cognitively Simplementioning

confidence: 56%

The Referential Problem Space revisited: An ecological hypothesis of the evolutionary and developmental origins of pointing

Leavens

2021

WIRES Cognitive Science

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“…Deictic gestures indicate a referent and are thus contingent upon the immediate context, such as pointing to, showing, or holding out a hand to ask for an object. Deictic gestures emerge early ontogenetically, around 8 to 10 months, and are those gestures which are most typically discussed and observed in research regarding different motivations or communicative intentions behind gestures (e.g., Behne, Liszkowski, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2012;Cameron-Faulkner, Theakston, Lieven, & Tomasello, 2015;Cochet, Jover, Rizzo, & Vauclair, 2016;Ramenzoni & Liszkowski, 2016). Bates, Camaioni, and Volterra (1975) were among the first to record the development of children's gesture use in detail.…”

Section: Gesture and Joint Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Infant Gesture and Joint Attention as Related Constructs and as Predictors of Later Language

Salo

Rowe

Reeb‐Sutherland

2018

Infancy

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In infancy, use of gesture and the ability to engage in joint attention with others both predict later language development. Conceptually, gesture and joint attention abilities may reflect a similar underlying social communicative skill. However, these abilities are often studied separately. Despite the fact that gesture is often used in episodes of joint attention, little is known about the degree to which measures of gesture use and joint attention ability are associated with one another or how they similarly, or differentially, predict children's language abilities. Participants in the current study were 53 infants. At 12-months, multiple measures of infants' gesture use were gleaned from a free-play interaction with a parent. Infants' responding to and initiating joint attention were measured via the Early Social-Communicative Scales (ESCS, Mundy et al., 2003). Infants' expressive and receptive language was measured at 24-months with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (Mullen, 1995). A factor analysis including gesture and joint attention measures indicated that at 12-months joint attention, particularly responding to joint attention, reflects a similar underlying construct with infant gesture use, yet they uniquely predict later language ability.

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“…Declarative informative pointing seems to share several characteristics with language, by both contributing to and reflecting (1) the understanding of others' attentional and knowledge states (Meng & Hashiya, 2014) and (2) the development of cooperation abilities (e.g., Brownell, Ramani, & Zerwas, 2006;Liszkowski, 2005). In addition, theory of mind abilities (ToM), measured with standard tasks (e.g., Sally-Ann test) in children between 3 and 4 years of age, appear to be significantly related to the production of informative pointing, but not to the production of expressive pointing (Cochet, Jover, Rizzo, & Vauclair, 2016). Although little is known about the role of informative pointing at earlier stages of development, the production of this gesture during toddlerhood might be closely associated with the development of language and ToM.…”

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confidence: 99%

Communication in the second and third year of life: Relationships between nonverbal social skills and language

Cochet

Byrne

2016

Infant Behavior and Development

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We aimed to investigate developmental continuities between a range of early social and communicative abilities (including gestural communication) and language acquisition in children aged between 11 and 41 months. Initiation of joint attention and imitation were strongly correlated to language comprehension and production. Moreover, the analysis of different communicative gestures revealed significant relationships between language development and the production of symbolic gestures, declarative pointing (declarative informative pointing in particular), and head nodding. Other gestures such as imperative pointing, showing, and head shaking were not found to correlate with language level. Our results also suggest that distinct processes are involved in the development of language comprehension and production, and highlight the importance of considering various characteristics of children's early communicative skills.

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Relationships between declarative pointing and theory of mind abilities in 3- to 4-year-olds

Cited by 10 publications

References 55 publications

The Referential Problem Space revisited: An ecological hypothesis of the evolutionary and developmental origins of pointing

The Referential Problem Space revisited: An ecological hypothesis of the evolutionary and developmental origins of pointing

Exploring Infant Gesture and Joint Attention as Related Constructs and as Predictors of Later Language

Communication in the second and third year of life: Relationships between nonverbal social skills and language

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