Extrapolation and direct matching mediate anticipation in infancy
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Updated: May 3, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Dorota Green1, Olga Kochukhova1, Gustaf Gredebäck1
1Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Abstract:
Why are infants able to anticipate occlusion events and other people's actions but not the movement of self-propelled objects? This study investigated infant and adult anticipatory gaze shifts during observation of self-propelled objects and human goal-directed actions. Six-month-old infants anticipated self-propelled balls but not human actions. This demonstrates that different processes mediate the ability to anticipate human actions (direct matching) versus self-propelled objects (extrapolation).
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