12- and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others
Open accessAbstract
Classically, infants are thought to point for 2 main reasons: (a) They point imperatively when they want an adult to do something for them (e.g., give them something; "Juice!"), and (b) they point declaratively when they want an adult to share attention with them to some interesting event or object ("Look!"). Here we demonstrate the existence of another motive for infants' early pointing gestures: to inform another person of the location of an object that person is searching for. This informative motive for pointing suggests that from very early in ontogeny humans conceive of others as intentional agents with informational states and they have the motivation to provide such information communicatively.
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Many experiments on SS1 mental states contradict the idea that infants only form associations.
“However, numerous experiments on SS1 mental states contradict the notion that infants merely form associations [44-56; see also Ref. 63].”
From False-belief understanding in infants (2010) · cites this paper as [52]
SS1 is operational in the first months of life and is well established by the end of the first year.
“SS1 is already operational in the first months of life and is well in place by the end of the first year [45-57].”
From False-belief understanding in infants (2010) · cites this paper as [52]
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- Authors
- Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognition and Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2006-04
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 173-187
- ISSN
- 1524-8372 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7647
- OpenAlex
- W2002827238
- Cited by
- 559
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 31.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Cognition and Development (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- infant pointing, joint attention, intentional agents, communication motivation, object location, social cognition, ontogeny
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