Psychological reasoning in infancy

Question 1

Intentionality

Answer 1

mental states directed at something (goal , action or object)

Question 2

How do people judge if intentional or accidental

Answer 2

heuristics (psychological reasoning)

Question 3

Intentionality requires

Answer 3

recognise self as agent
detect goal status of others
isolate intentional behaviours from desires
distinguish accidental from motivated

Question 4

Agency

Answer 4

sense of self as having ability to control ones own actions

Question 5

studies of causal relationships in infants

Answer 5

Rovee-collier contingent learning and memory in kicking

Striano- contingents vs non contingent vs imitation.
1mo no discriminate butt 3mo smile and gaze more in typical

Question 6

imitation as learned sense of agency

Answer 6

Meltzoff- cross-modality mapping
links own desires to actions of ones own body joined up experience of agency

Question 7

Nativist view of building agency

Answer 7

Natural pedagogy- adult role of teacher with natural tendency to orient infant to sig of communication cues that enable learning new things

Question 8

Agency in infants study

Answer 8

Light box study
Gergely et al - replication with intention. imitating head banging when holding blanket but not when hands free as seen as irrational

Question 9

Recognising intention - gaze following study

Answer 9

9-11 months watch adult with eyes closed or open towards target
9 follow regardless but 10+ only if eyes open
positive correlation between gaze following and subsequent language scores
need rich mentalistic understanding of others minds to follow gaze

Question 10

Recognising intentions in direct gaze study

Answer 10

Adult actor indicates desire for toy
Gaze + reach or just gaze
VOE dv
7-9 don’t distinguish unless reach
12 + use gaze alone so understand they had a goal (principle of consistency impacts behaviour)

Question 11

Communicative intent at 12mo

Answer 11

explain infant communicative behaviour using mental states
imitate on purpose
proto-declarative pointing
gaze-following
engaging wit actions of agents towards goals

Question 12

Rationality principles

Answer 12

Underlies psychological (mental state) reasoning - all things equal agent will act rationally
efficiency -agents little effort as possible to achieve goals
Consistency- agents act in manner consistent of mental states

Question 13

Reasoning of predicting actions study

Answer 13

inference about desire for toy
hand or claw swerve to indicate desired toy
Video of incomplete reach for toy
an predict swerve for hand but not claw

Question 14

Motivational state

Answer 14

Agent act to achieve goals

Question 15

combining agents and goals study

Answer 15

Habituate to rational actions of balls in scene - ball wants to get the other ball. will jump if barrier present
either go straight or jump with no barrier present
experimental group look more at irrational jump

Question 16

Teleological stance

Answer 16

apply rational principles to behaviour rather then have access to intentionality

Question 17

Overall evidence for infants detecting intentionality

Answer 17

detect agency
aware of goal states
aware that actions cause goals
sensitive to rational vs irrational action in specific environments

Question 18

Intentions vs desires

Answer 18

intentions- planned for
desires- wished for
by 4years

Question 19

isolating intention from accident study

Answer 19

training phase showing what device does
accidental action say whoops
purpose action say there
see if child imitates
by 18monts way more likely to imitate intentional over accidental

Question 20

Reasoning about agents perspective study

Answer 20

infant see all view of scene actor has occluded part
either completely hidden short barrier or tall object
actor reach for yellow rugby ball
When occlusion removed more looking when actor reaches for red box when they could already see In compared to no discrimination of previous fully occluded condition

Question 21

Evidence for efficiency principle

Answer 21

VOE- agents cover toys either opaque or transparent. infants expect agent to reach for transparent covered toy as most efficient
Also ball study

Question 22

Consistency principle study

Answer 22

One where agent shows preference for one toy and infants look longer if they switch

Question 23

Consistency over efficiency

Answer 23

Agent shows preference for object A. in test trials infants expect agent to still go for A even if its harder to get to.

Question 24

Deciding if an agent

Answer 24

novel entity seen as agent if gives sufficient evidence that it has internal control over its actions. has some goal.

Question 25

Novel entity agent study

Answer 25

oval entity rest against object A. Only seen as agent if responded to experimenter in a proper interaction. seen as pursing a communication goal