A study of comparative cognitive development on social cognition from self-propelled to goal-directed motion

对象知识包括社会/生物对象和物理对象之间的区分，是社会认知的基础。本研究探讨了非人类灵长类动物是否表现出这种歧视的基础上的因果关系的议案，发现在人类婴儿。研究结果表明，非人类灵长类动物可以理解物理物体的运动是由碰撞等外部因素引起的，而生物物体则在没有任何外部因素的情况下以自我推进的方式运动。这表明人类和非人类灵长类动物有可能分享类似的物体知识。

Object knowledge including discrimination between social/biological objects and physical objects underlies social cognition. The present study examined whether non-human primates show such discrimination based on causality of motions, as found in human infants. The findings indicates that non-human primates can understand that physical objects' motion is caused by the external factors like collision, whereas biological objects move in a self-propelled way without any external factors. This suggests the possibility that human and non-human primates would share the similar object knowledge.