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During adolescence, individuals experience significant cognitive development that enhances their understanding of others' emotions and thoughts, known as cognitive empathy. This period is marked by an increased ability to adapt to others' perspectives and a more nuanced understanding of others' mental states, a skill that is foundational for social problem-solving and conflict avoidance. The development of cognitive empathy relies heavily on the theory of mind — the...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Emergence of shared reference and shared minds in infancy.

Ulf Liszkowski1

  • 1University Hamburg, Psychology, VMP 5, 20147 Hamburg, Germany.

Current Opinion in Psychology
|December 4, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Infants develop shared reference around 12 months, enabling joint attention and understanding. This crucial social skill emerges through caregiver interaction and co-construction, forming a foundation for cognitive development.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Infant Communication
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • The development of early communication infrastructure in infancy is not fully understood.
  • Shared reference, a key component of social interaction, has been a focus of research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the emergence and developmental trajectory of shared reference in infants.
  • To explore the role of social interaction and caregiver input in establishing shared reference.
  • To propose a model of shared reference as a co-constructed process rather than a static ability.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal observation of infant communication behaviors.
  • Analysis of caregiver-infant interactions during goal-directed activities.
  • Focus on the emergence of pointing and joint attention as indicators of shared reference.

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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
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Main Results:

  • Shared reference ability is established around 12 months of age, coinciding with the onset of pointing.
  • Interactions involving differing perspectives develop after shared reference is established.
  • Caregiver assistance and interaction are critical mediators in the development of shared reference.

Conclusions:

  • Shared reference is not merely a prerequisite but also an outcome of social cognitive development.
  • Focusing on the process of social and cognitive co-construction provides a more dynamic understanding of shared reference.
  • Early social interaction lays the groundwork for sophisticated cognitive abilities in infancy.