Infants attribute goals even to biomechanically impossible actions.

Full Abstract

Human infants readily interpret the actions of others in terms of goals, but the origins of this important cognitive skill are keenly debated. We tested whether infants recognize others' actions as goal-directed on the basis of their experience with carrying out and observing goal-directed actions, or whether their perception of a goal-directed action is based on the recognition of a specific event structure. Counterintuitively, but consistent with our prediction, we observed that infants appear to extend goal attribution even to biomechanically impossible actions so long as they are physically efficient, indicating that the notion of 'goal' is unlikely to be derived directly from infants' experience.

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Author information

Author/s: Southgate, Victoria (V); Johnson, Mark H (MH); Csibra, Gergely (G);

Affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom. v.southgate@bbk.ac.uk

Grants: G9715587 (Agency:United Kingdom Medical Research Council)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Cognition (Cognition), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jun; vol 107 (issue 3) : pp 1059-69

Dates: Created 2008/04/28; Completed 2008/07/24;

PMID: 18078920, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Biomechanics
Female
Goals
Humans

Humans
Infant
Male
Motion Perception

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