A Developmental Process of Mentalizing in "Action Contingent Social Event" Situations in Infants

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The purpose of this study is to reconsider the developmental origin and process of mentalizing ability from a viewpoint of a “mother-event-infant” triadic relations. Data were collected through a longitudinal observation of mother-infantinteractions of 50 pairs at infant’s age 3, 5, 8, 12, 15. Results indicated that their prevailing interaction sequences were; “Infants Look at Object (ILO) →Mothers Look at the Same” at 3 & 5 months, “IOL→Mothers Dramatize Object (MDO)” at 8 months, “ILO→MDO→Infants Manipulate the Object”. The implication of these results is that mothers begin to introduce events by dramatization into interaction with their infants at 8 months and after then, infants develop mentalizing through attending at events than objects.