Ostension affects infant learning more than attention

A recent controversy in infants' social learning has revolved around whether ostensive cues have an effect beyond simply grabbing infants' attention: natural pedagogy theory vs. attention modulation theory. However, since previous research only focused on gaze-following behaviors, it has failed to determine whether attention-grabbing versus ostensive cues might affect infants' learning at different levels. To explore this possibility, we conducted a critical test with 9-month-old infants (N=140) in which gaze-following behavior was discriminated from referential learning about a target object (object processing and object preference). Here we report that although both attentional cues (shivering, a beep, and mouth-moving beep) and ostensive cues (infant-directed speech) affected infants' gaze-following, only ostensive cues facilitated their referential object learning. These findings provide new evidence that ostensive cues play a distinct role in infant learning, supporting natural pedagogy theory.