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Related Concept Videos

Fundamental Attribution Error01:14

Fundamental Attribution Error

According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is called the fundamental attribution...
Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory01:29

Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory

Attribution theory plays a crucial role in social psychology, helping to explain how individuals interpret the causes of behavior. One prominent model within this field is Harold Kelley's covariation theory, which provides a systematic approach to determining whether internal traits or external circumstances drive a person's actions. The model posits that individuals rely on three key types of information—consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness—to make these judgments.Consensus: Comparing...
Theory of Attribution I: Correspondent Inference Theory01:15

Theory of Attribution I: Correspondent Inference Theory

Correspondent inference theory, proposed by Jones and Davis in 1965, seeks to explain how individuals infer stable personality traits from observed behaviors. It suggests that people attribute actions to underlying dispositions rather than external circumstances, particularly when the behavior appears intentional and socially significant.Voluntary Behavior and Dispositional AttributionAccording to this theory, individuals are more likely to attribute behavior to personal traits when it appears...
Attribution Theory00:56

Attribution Theory

Behavior is a product of both the situation (e.g., cultural influences, social roles, and the presence of bystanders) and of the person (e.g., personality characteristics). Subfields of psychology tend to focus on one influence or behavior over others. Situationism is the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings. In contrast, dispositionism holds that our behavior is determined by internal factors (Heider, 1958). An internal factor is an...
Observational Learning01:12

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning because...
Instinctive Drift01:05

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 16, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Infants Use Others' Inconsistent Choices to Make Preference Attributions.

Youjung Choi1, Rylie Putrich2, Kristy vanMarle3

  • 1School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Southern Illinois University, 1125 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|May 14, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Eight-and-a-half-month-old infants infer preferences from inconsistent choices. They attribute preference when the unique choice is first, but not when it is last, showing early probabilistic reasoning.

Keywords:
Infancyinconsistencypreferencetemporal structure

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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 16, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Infant Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Understanding how infants develop the ability to interpret others' actions and infer their mental states is crucial.
  • Early research suggests infants are sensitive to social cues, but the nuances of preference attribution based on choice patterns are less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether 8.5-month-old infants can infer an agent's preference based on inconsistent choices.
  • To examine the role of temporal order and inconsistency in infant preference attribution.

Main Methods:

  • Infants were presented with an agent making a series of choices between two toys (A and B).
  • Two conditions were tested: the unique choice presented first (ABBBB) and last (AAAAB).
  • Infant looking times and behavioral responses were measured to assess preference attribution.

Main Results:

  • Infants attributed a preference to the agent when the unique choice was presented first (ABBBB).
  • Infants did not attribute a preference when the unique choice was presented last (AAAAB).
  • This suggests infants integrate temporal information and inconsistency to infer preferences.

Conclusions:

  • 8.5-month-old infants can use inconsistent choice patterns to attribute preferences.
  • The temporal order of inconsistent information significantly impacts infant inference.
  • These findings highlight infants' early capacity for probabilistic reasoning and understanding social cues.