RPG: Detection of Other Minds in Infancy: A Domain-Specific Approach

这项计划补助金将支持关于婴儿对世界上什么样的事物具有意图和感知等心理状态的信念的初步研究。 以前的研究主要集中在确定婴儿何时第一次将人视为有思想的实体，假设婴儿只将思想归因于人类。 这个项目的出发点是，婴儿可以将精神状态归因于更广泛的实体。 从这个角度来看，一个中心问题是，婴儿在什么基础上进行心理状态归因？ 我以前的研究表明，12个月大的婴儿会跟随一个与人没有物理相似性的动画对象的“目光”，只要它具有具有有思想的生物的其他特征，例如目标导向行为或面部特征。 凝视跟随是指一个人，即“追随者”，转向另一个人正在看的东西的熟悉行为，被认为反映了追随者的信念，即凝视者具有注意力，感知和目标导向等精神状态。 这项研究探讨了婴儿期注视行为背后的知识的本质和发展。 这一目标将通过探索1）在婴儿期引起注视跟随的特征，2）这些特征在9至18个月之间的发展变化，以及3）引起注视跟随行为的对象特征与引起意图归因的对象特征之间的关系来实现，这些归因由其他行为（如模仿感知目标）揭示。 这项工作的发现将进一步加深我们对婴儿如何对社会和精神世界进行推理的理解，这个世界不仅包括人，还包括其他种类的物体。

This planning grant will support preliminary studies concerning infants' beliefs about what kinds of things in the world have mental states such as intentions and perceptions. Previous research has focused largely on determining when infants first conceive of people as entities with minds, on the assumption that infants attribute mentality only to humans. This project proceeds from the view that infants may attribute mental states to a broader range of entities. From this perspective, a central question is, On what grounds do infants make mental state attributions? My previous research has shown that 12-month-old infants will follow the `gaze` of an animated object that bears no physical resemblance to a person, as long as it has other properties characteristic of creatures with minds, such as goal-directed behavior or facial features. Gaze-following refers to the familiar behavior in which one person, the `follower,` turns to see what another person is looking at, and is thought to reflect the follower's belief that the gazer has mental states such as attention, perception, and goal-directedness. The proposed research explores the nature and development of the knowledge that underlies gaze-following behavior in infancy. This goal will be pursued by exploring 1) the characteristics that elicit gaze-following in infancy, 2) developmental changes in these characteristics between the ages of 9 and 18 months, and 3) the relationship between object characteristics that elicit gaze-following behaviors and those that elicit attributions of intentionality as revealed by other behaviors such as the imitation of perceived goals. The findings of this work will further our understanding of how infants come to reason about a social and mental world that includes not only people but also other kinds of objects.