The development in very young children of tacit knowledge concerning visual perception

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Social Interaction

Background:

• Early social-cognitive development is crucial for understanding how children learn about others' mental states.
• Assessing young children's knowledge of visual-attentional acts and abilities provides insight into their developing theory of mind.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate behaviorally expressed knowledge of visual-attentional acts and abilities in very young children.
• To track the developmental trajectory of understanding perception, including showing and hiding behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Tested 60 children aged 1 to 3 years in their homes.
• Utilized tasks involving percept production (e.g., pointing, showing objects), percept deprivation (hiding objects), and percept diagnosis (determining others' focus).

Main Results:

• By age 1, children understood pointing and showing; by age 2, they understood gaze direction and could solve novel showing tasks.
• Hiding abilities emerged later than showing abilities, becoming established by age 3.
• Children demonstrated understanding of the role of eyes in seeing by age 2-2.5, including actions like removing hands from eyes.

Conclusions:

• Age-related trends in these tasks reflect significant developments in social interaction, communication, and cognition about perception.
• Children's understanding of visual attention develops progressively from infancy through toddlerhood.
• The study highlights key milestones in early social cognition related to shared attention and understanding others' perspectives.