Violations of social expectations enhance infants' learning
Qiong Cao1, Alexis Smith-Flores2, Joanna Zhou3
1Johns Hopkins University, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
Cognition
|July 3, 2025
Summary
Infants learn more about surprising social events. Unexpected actions by people towards objects enhance infant learning about both the object and the person involved.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Social Cognition
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Infants notice surprising physical events and learn more about objects.
- It is unknown if surprising social events similarly enhance infant learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if surprising social events amplify infant learning.
- To determine if violations of social expectations enhance learning about objects and social agents.
Main Methods:
- 16- to 19-month-old infants observed a person interacting with objects.
- Infants saw expected or unexpected social behaviors (emotional reactions, preference changes).
- Infants then had opportunities to learn about the object or person.
Main Results:
- Infants showed enhanced learning about objects involved in surprising social events.
- Infants also demonstrated enhanced learning about the person involved in surprising social events.
- Learning enhancement occurred across different types of social expectation violations.
Conclusions:
- Early expectations play a crucial role in supporting infant learning.
- Surprising social events enhance learning in both the social and physical domains.
- Findings suggest a unified mechanism for expectation-driven learning in infants.
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