Twenty-four infants were tested monthly for gaze and point following between 9 and 15 months of age and mother-infant free play sessions were also conducted at 9, 12, and 15 months (Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998). Using this data set, this study explored relations between maternal talk about mental states during mothers' free play with…

In manual search tasks designed to assess infants' knowledge of the object concept, why does search for objects hidden by darkness precede search for objects hidden by visible occluders by several months? A graded representations account explains this decalage by proposing that the conflicting visual input from occluders directly competes with…

The balance between the preservation of early cognitive functions and serious transformations on these functions shifts across time. Piaget's writings, which favored transformations, are being replaced by writings that emphasize continuities between select cognitive functions of infants and older children. The claim that young infants possess…

The present research examined whether 12.5-month-old infants take into account what objects an agent knows to be present in a scene when interpreting the agent's actions. In two experiments, the infants watched a female human agent repeatedly reach for and grasp object-A as opposed to object-B on an apparatus floor. Object-B was either (1) visible…

In searching for a toy hidden at a new location, infants will err by searching at the previously correct location. This study investigated the possibility that 8.5-month-old infants would perseverate on the basis of other visual features by which covers could be individuated. Infants saw a toy hidden under 1 of 2 distinctly shaped covers.…

Infants' apparent failure in gaze-following tasks is often interpreted as a sign of lack of understanding the referential nature of looking. In the present study, 8- and 12-month-old infants followed the gaze of a model to one of two locations hidden from their view by occluders. When the occluders were removed, an object was revealed either at…

Developmental research suggests that whereas very young infants individuate objects purely on spatiotemporal grounds, from (at latest) around 1 year of age children are capable of individuating objects according to the kind they belong to and the properties they instantiate. As the latter ability has been found to correlate with language, some…

Two component skills of object permanence were studied: existence constancy -- the infants' ability to expect that an object continues to exist after it is hidden, and localization skill -- infants' ability to search in the correct place for a hidden object. Contradictions within the literature may occur because of task lability caused by failure…

A theoretical position that mind is not separate from the ways in which it is evidenced through the body is in contrast with an assumption made in the literature on children's theory of mind that maintains that mental states can only be demonstrated independently of their behavioral context. This assumption is tested by the false belief criterion,…

The onset and development of separation protest of 9 to 24-month-old infants was studied in a non-Western culture. Relationships between separation protest and object permanence were also explored. (ST)

Four experiments examined the role of correlations between dynamic and static parts on 12- to 16-month-olds' ability to learn the identity of agents and recipients in a simple causal event. Infants were habituated to events in which objects with a dynamic or static part acted as an agent or a recipient and then were tested with an event in which…

An extensive body of research claims that labels facilitate categorisation, highlight the commonalities between objects and act as invitations to form categories for young infants before their first birthday. While this may indeed be a reasonable claim, we argue that it is not justified by the experiments described in the research. We report on a…

This study examined infants' use of object knowledge for scaling the manipulative force of object-directed actions. Infants 9, 12, and 15 months of age were outfitted with motion-analysis sensors on their arms and then presented with stimulus objects to examine individually over a series of familiarization trials. Two stimulus objects were used in…

Explores development of cognitive representation in 20 infants 12 to 24 months of age with regard to (l) their understanding of agency in symbolic play (agent use), (2) recognition of their own mirror image, and (3) object permanence. Results were generally consistent with developmental sequences predicted by Fischer's Skill Theory for agent use…

Focuses on whether 9- and 12-month-old infants understand that an object has been deleted from its initial hiding place as part of its displacement to a new location. (Author/NH)