Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, USA.
Dev Sci. 2014 Jan;17(1):23-34. doi: 10.1111/desc.12095. Epub 2013 Oct 1.
The ability to interpret and predict the actions of others is crucial to social interaction and to social, cognitive, and linguistic development. The current study provided a strong test of this predictive ability by assessing (1) whether infants are capable of prospectively processing actions that fail to achieve their intended outcome, and (2) how infants respond to events in which their initial predictions are not confirmed. Using eye tracking, 8-month-olds, 10-month-olds, and adults watched an actor repeatedly reach over a barrier to either successfully or unsuccessfully retrieve a ball. Ten-month-olds and adults produced anticipatory looks to the ball, even when the action was unsuccessful and the actor never achieved his goal. Moreover, they revised their initial predictions in response to accumulating evidence of the actor's failure. Eight-month-olds showed anticipatory looking only after seeing the actor successfully grasp and retrieve the ball. Results support a flexible, prospective social information processing ability that emerges during the first year of life.
理解和预测他人行为对于社交互动以及社会、认知和语言发展至关重要。本研究通过评估（1）婴儿是否能够前瞻性地处理未能达到预期结果的行为，以及（2）婴儿如何应对其最初预测未得到证实的事件，对这种预测能力进行了强有力的检验。使用眼动追踪技术，8 个月大、10 个月大的婴儿和成年人观看了一个演员多次越过障碍，成功或未能成功地取回一个球。10 个月大的婴儿和成年人即使在动作失败且演员从未达到目标的情况下，也会对球产生预期的注视。此外，他们根据演员失败的累积证据修正了最初的预测。8 个月大的婴儿只有在看到演员成功抓住并取回球后才会表现出预期的注视。研究结果支持了一种灵活的、前瞻性的社会信息处理能力，这种能力在生命的第一年就出现了。
