Journal article
Learning how actions function: The role of outcomes in infants’ representation of events
Infant behavior & development, Vol.34(2), pp.351-362
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/114532
PMCID: PMC3109229
PMID: 21429585
Abstract
► At 10 months, infants represent the general ability of actions to produce a sound. ► At 10 months, infants are insensitive to the fact that some objects produce sounds when acted on whereas others are silent when acted on. ► Infants represent the outcome producing potential of actions, but not of objects. ► The fact that 10-month-old infants apparently represent actions with their potential to produce outcomes suggests that infants’ action representation is like adults in some ways.
Action is a fundamental component of object representations. However, little is known about how infants represent actions performed on objects. Across four experiments, we tested the hypothesis that at 10 months of age (
N
=
80) infants represent the general ability of actions to produce outcomes (sounds). Experiments 1A and 1B showed that infants encode actions and associate actions and object appearances in events in which actions produced no sound outcomes. Experiment 2 showed that infants associate the presence or absence of outcomes with actions. Experiment 3 showed, in contrast, that infants did not associate the presence or absence of outcomes with object appearances. Together, these studies suggest that infants encode the outcome potential of specific actions. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the development of action representations.
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Details
- Title
- Learning how actions function: The role of outcomes in infants’ representation of events
- Creators
- Sammy Perone - University of Iowa, United StatesKelly L Madole - Western Kentucky University, United StatesLisa M Oakes - Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, 267 Cousteau Pl., Davis, CA 95618, United States
- Publication Details
- Infant behavior & development, Vol.34(2), pp.351-362
- Academic Unit
- Human Development, Department of
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- Identifiers
- 99900547858201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article