ABSTRACT

Interpreting others’ actions as goal-directed, even when the actions are unfamiliar, is indispensable for social learning, and can be particularly important for infants, whose own action repertoire is limited. Indeed, young infants have been shown to attribute goals to unfamiliar actions as early as 3 months of age, but this ability appears restricted to actions performed by individuals. In contrast, attributing shared goals to actions performed by multiple individuals seems to emerge only in the second year of life. Considering the restrictions that this would impose on infants’ understanding and learning from interactions in their environment, we reexamine this ability by introducing 9-month-old infants to simple joint actions, in which two agents coordinate their actions toward the same goal. To establish whether infants formed an expectation about future actions of these agents, infants’ cortical activity was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The hemodynamic response, recorded in (p)STS, indicated that infants attributed goals to simultaneous and coordinated joint actions of two individuals. Thus, even prior to actively engaging in collaborative activities themselves, infants can attribute shared goals to observed joint actions, enabling infants to learn from, and about, the complementary roles of social interactions, a central characteristic of human culture.

摘要

将他人的行为解释为目标导向的行为，即使这些行为是不熟悉的，这对于社会学习来说是必不可少的，对于自己的行为库有限的婴儿尤其重要。事实上，早在 3 个月大时，小婴儿就已将目标归因于不熟悉的动作，但这种能力似乎仅限于个人执行的动作。相比之下，将共同目标归因于多个人的行为似乎只出现在生命的第二年。考虑到这会限制婴儿从环境中的互动中理解和学习，我们通过向 9 个月大的婴儿介绍简单的联合动作来重新检查这种能力，其中两个代理为了同一目标协调他们的动作。为了确定婴儿是否对这些药物的未来行为形成了预期，使用功能性近红外光谱 (fNIRS) 测量了婴儿的皮质活动。(p)STS 中记录的血流动力学反应表明婴儿将目标归因于两个人同时协调的联合行动。因此，即使在自己积极参与协作活动之前，婴儿也可以将共同的目标归因于观察到的联合行动，从而使婴儿能够从社会互动的互补角色中学习，并了解社会互动的互补作用，这是人类文化的一个核心特征。表明婴儿将目标归因于两个人同时协调的联合行动。因此，即使在自己积极参与协作活动之前，婴儿也可以将共同的目标归因于观察到的联合行动，从而使婴儿能够从社会互动的互补角色中学习，并了解社会互动的互补作用，这是人类文化的一个核心特征。表明婴儿将目标归因于两个人同时协调的联合行动。因此，即使在自己积极参与协作活动之前，婴儿也可以将共同的目标归因于观察到的联合行动，从而使婴儿能够从社会互动的互补角色中学习，并了解社会互动的互补作用，这是人类文化的一个核心特征。