The observation of social interactions helps infants track agents across contexts

Abstract

Studies on early sociomoral cognition typically require infants to make sense of actions of two or more agents across events. We examined under what conditions infants are likely to encode and reidentify the featural identities of multiple agents across events. We hypothesized that when agents’ actions are construed as a ‘social interaction’ rather than independent actions, agents’ featural identities are more likely to be encoded and later re-identified because how agents act toward one another could convey information that is relatively stable across contexts (how agents are related or their dispositions). To this end, we compared between skeletal Giving and Taking events, building on findings showing that Giving (but not Taking) is often construed as a social interaction. In Experiment 1, 15-month-old infants (N = 48) observed either Giving or Taking between two agents, and then performed a manual search task in which one agent was switched or neither agent was switched to test infants’ agent reidentification. Infants in the Giving (but not Taking) condition searched longer on switch trials compared to no-switch trials, suggesting that they reidentified both agents. In Experiment 2, 15-month-old infants (N = 24) observed the Giving events, and then performed a manual search task to test reidentification of each agent in the context of a novel partner. Infants gave no evidence of agent reidentification, suggesting that in Experiment 1 they tracked agents as a dyad. Together, the findings show that observed social interactions facilitate tracking agents across contexts, and relational representations likely support this achievement.

The Representation of Giving Actions: Event Construction in the Service of Monitoring Social Relationships

“…1a; Tatone et al, 2015). A similar asymmetry has been also obtained using a manual-search task (Stavans & Csibra, 2023). Infants are presented with two dolls engaging in a giving or a taking action, which are then placed inside a box (Fig.…”

“…Infants look longer to the goal change (from nonsocial to social) in giving but not in taking. (b) Manual search(Stavans & Csibra, 2023). Infants are exposed to two dolls engaging in giving or taking, which are then are placed inside a box.…”