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Now I see it but you don't: 14-month-olds can represent another person's visual perspective

Beate Sodian1, Claudia Thoermer, Ulrike Metz

  • 1Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany. sodian@edupsy.uni-muenchen.de

Developmental Science
|February 9, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Fourteen-month-old infants understand what others see, looking longer when an object is hidden from view. Twelve-month-olds did not show this understanding of visual perspective taking.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Infant Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Understanding others' perspectives is crucial for social interaction.
  • Previous research suggests early precursors to theory of mind in infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate 12- and 14-month-old infants' ability to represent another person's visual perspective.
  • To examine infants' understanding of goal-directed actions based on visual information.

Main Methods:

  • A looking-time paradigm was employed with 12- and 14-month-old infants.
  • Infants observed an actor reaching for objects under conditions where the goal-object was visible or invisible to the actor.

Main Results:

  • Fourteen-month-olds looked longer when the actor reached for a new object if the previous goal-object was out of the actor's sight.
  • This suggests infants inferred the actor's goal based on the object's visibility.
  • Twelve-month-olds did not differentiate between the visibility conditions.

Conclusions:

  • Fourteen-month-olds demonstrate a basic level of visual perspective-taking.
  • Infants appear to 'rationalize' actions based on perceived visual information.
  • This study contributes to understanding the early development of social cognition and the understanding of seeing.

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