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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Infants anticipate probabilistic but not deterministic outcomes
1Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Infants anticipate probable outcomes in uncertain situations but not deterministic ones. This suggests infants prioritize learning novel information over predicting certain events.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Infant Psychology
- Event Expectation
Background:
- Infants exhibit surprise at impossible or improbable events, suggesting expectation formation.
- The conditions under which infants form proactive expectations remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between expectation and surprise in preverbal infants.
- To determine if infants form proactive expectations in probabilistic versus deterministic scenarios.
Main Methods:
- Observing 12-month-old infants' looking behavior at probabilistic and deterministic events.
- Analyzing infant responses to expected versus unexpected event continuations.
Main Results:
- Infants anticipated probable outcomes in uncertain situations and were surprised by improbable ones.
- Infants did not anticipate the sole possible outcome in deterministic situations, yet showed surprise when it did not occur.
Conclusions:
- Infant expectation formation differs between probabilistic and deterministic events.
- Infants may prioritize anticipating events that offer greater potential for novel knowledge acquisition.
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