Psychology of Intersubjectivity in Infants
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Questions and Answers

What defines primary intersubjectivity in infants?

  • Includes imitating sounds and facial gestures. (correct)
  • Characterized by intentional interactions.
  • Focus on understanding others' perspectives.
  • Involves shared attention and pointing.

    • Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of primary intersubjectivity?

  • Attention to faces and eye contact.
  • Dyadic interactions with caregivers.
  • Imitation of sounds and facial expressions.
  • Shared experiences with multiple infants. (correct)

    • How does secondary intersubjectivity differ from primary intersubjectivity?

  • It includes pointing and turn-taking. (correct)
  • It involves sophisticated imitation of sounds.
  • It features unintentional interactions.
  • It primarily focuses on eye contact.

    • At what age do infants begin to display signs of secondary intersubjectivity according to the content?

    <p>Older infancy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role does dyadic mimicry play in early socialisation?

    <p>It motivates infants to engage with others.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the two key modes of communication important for language acquisition according to the lecture?

    <p>Joint attention and turn-taking.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What preference do newborns exhibit in regards to gaze?

    <p>Prefer direct gaze over averted gaze.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does pre-linguistic communication encompass beyond crying?

    <p>Vocalisations, imitation, and dyadic interactions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary role of joint attention in early language development?

    <p>It helps children learn the names of objects effectively.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    At what age do children typically begin to engage in joint attention by switching their gaze between an adult and an object?

    <p>9 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do routines contribute to language learning in children?

    <p>They create a predictable environment for language acquisition.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    At what age can infants begin to check back with a pointer?

    <p>12 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is indicated by a mother's sensitivity to a child's focus of attention?

    <p>It positively influences the child's vocabulary acquisition.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is one of the key predictors of later language skills in children?

    <p>Engagement in joint attention episodes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What do infants do at 12 months when they encounter a person who has their eyes closed?

    <p>They ignore the gaze.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    At which age do infants start to specifically track gaze?

    <p>18 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What effect do twins often experience regarding language development, according to the content?

    <p>They often experience language delay related to joint attention.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which type of attention involves a caregiver attempting to regain a child's focus after it shifts from a desired object?

    <p>Following attention</p> Signup and view all the answers

    By what age do infants consistently follow an adult's gaze?

    <p>9 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is demonstrated when a 12-month-old follows a head turn, even if the person is blindfolded?

    <p>Engagement in joint attention</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What do children do during a visual cliff experiment, according to social referencing?

    <p>Gauge emotional responses from adults in threatening situations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What age shows evidence that infants may understand an adult's intention to communicate?

    <p>14 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do infants at 12 months respond to a gaze behind barriers as compared to when an adult's eyes are visible?

    <p>They will gaze follow behind barriers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What cognitive skill do infants develop by 14 months in relation to joint attention?

    <p>They understand shared goals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main focus of the study by Shi and Lepage (2008)?

    <p>The effect of functional morphemes on word segmentation in preverbal infants</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the context of language development, what does the term 'bootstrapping' refer to in Gervain et al.'s study?

    <p>Infants identifying patterns in word order across different languages</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What aspect of language learning is emphasized in Marcus et al.'s 1999 study?

    <p>Rule learning and pattern recognition in infants</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which behavior is primarily discussed in the context of a 10-month-old in the supplementary videos?

    <p>Pointing and its implications for communication</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What key concept is associated with gaze following as discussed by Eugenio Parise?

    <p>Understanding the intentions of others through visual attention</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What aspect of infant behavior does the study by Meltzoff & Moore (1977) primarily investigate?

    <p>Imitation of facial and manual gestures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which study examines infants' understanding of communicative intentions through gestures?

    <p>Behne, Carpenter, &amp; Tomasello (2005)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is primarily discussed in the research by Carpenter et al. (1998)?

    <p>Social cognition and joint attention from 9 to 15 months</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What did Goren, Sarty, & Wu (1975) discover about newborn infants?

    <p>They show visual following towards face-like stimuli.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What conclusion can be drawn from the research by Moll & Tomasello (2004)?

    <p>Gaze following in infants occurs even behind barriers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which research presents evidence for the role of eye contact in infant development?

    <p>Farroni et al. (2002)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary focus of the study by Brooks & Meltzoff (2002)?

    <p>The impact of adult looking behavior on infants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which concept is discussed by Bruner (1975) in relation to infant development?

    <p>The ontogenesis of speech acts</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a key behavior exhibited by infants around 6 months to follow gaze?

    <p>They need mutual gaze before they can follow it to an object.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which interaction marks the beginning of secondary intersubjectivity in infants?

    <p>Joint attention with shared experiences.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is demonstrated by infants during the Still Face Experiment?

    <p>Infants attempt to re-engage with their caregiver after a breakdown in interaction.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the Visual Cliff experiment, what do infants rely on when confronted with the perceived drop-off?

    <p>Parental emotional cues for guidance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role does social referencing play in infants' responses to unfamiliar situations?

    <p>It helps infants assess danger based on caregiver reactions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What do older infants (around 9 months) start to exhibit in their interactions with caregivers?

    <p>More sophisticated forms of communication like pointing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does secondary intersubjectivity allow infants to recognize about others?

    <p>That others have their own perspectives.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary outcome when a caregiver fails to respond in the Still Face Experiment?

    <p>There is a breakdown in interaction leading to attempts for repair.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Lecture 2: Early Social Skills and Language/Communication Development

    • PSYC21021: Topics and Issues in Developmental Psychology
    • Dr. Alissa Ferry

    Lecture 2 Aims

    • Outline pre-linguistic communication skills
    • Understand the differences between primary and secondary intersubjectivity
    • Provide evidence of how these skills develop in infancy
    • Evaluate the importance of these skills in relation to language acquisition

    Lecture 2 Outline

    • Two main stages of early social skills: primary and secondary intersubjectivity
    • Two key modes of communication important for language acquisition: turn-taking and joint attention

    Early Socialisation (1)

    • Pre-linguistic communication is more than just crying

    Early Socialisation (2)

    • Primary Intersubjectivity (Trevarthen, 1979):
      • First months: attention to faces, eye contact, produce vocalizations, imitate sounds and gestures
    • Secondary Intersubjectivity (Trevarthen, 1979):
      • Older infants: more sophisticated, pointing, turn-taking, shared attention

    Early Socialisation: Primary Intersubjectivity

    • First months: attention to faces, eye contact, produce vocalizations, imitate sounds and facial gestures, one-at-a-time interactions
    • Caregiver and infant share experiences in face-to-face interactions. But these interactions are dyadic (baby and caregiver, baby and object).
    • No assumption of the perspective of others
    • These interactions are not intentional

    Motivation - dyadic mimicry

    • Infants imitate (Kuhl & Meltzoff, 1996; Meltzoff & Moore, 1977)
    • Newborns mimic facial expressions
    • 3-4-month-olds imitate sounds
    • Limited form of imitation
    • Shows infants are motivated to engage with others

    Preference for Faces

    • From birth, infants prefer to look at "face-like" things (Goren et al., 1975)

    Early Socialisation: Attention to faces and eye gaze

    • Newborns prefer to look at direct gaze compared to averted gaze (Farroni et al., 2002)

    Early Socialisation: Attention to faces and eye gaze

    • Senju and Csibra (2008): 6-month-olds only follow gaze to the object if preceded by mutual eye gaze.
    • Same results found for IDS, but not ADS. The communicative signal (eye gaze/IDS) encourages infants to attend to the same object

    Early Socialisation: Secondary Intersubjectivity

    • Older infants (from around 9 months): more sophisticated, pointing, turn-taking, joint attention
    • Caregiver and infant share experiences, and these interactions start to become triadic (the infant and caregiver interacting together with a toy; social referencing).
    • The interactions become intentional, and infants start to assume that others have their own perspective

    Secondary Intersubjectivity (2)

    • Coordinate emotional response with another person
    • Still Face Experiment (Adamson & Frick, 2003)
      • Parent “freezes” and stops responding
      • The interaction breaks down
    • Attempts to repair interaction (social engagement cues)

    Secondary Intersubjectivity (3)

    • Coordinate emotional response with another person
    • Still Face Experiment (Adamson & Frick, 2003)
      • Parent “freezes” and stops responding
      • The interaction breaks down
    • Attempts to repair the interaction (social engagement cues)
    • Social referencing and the Visual Cliff example (Sorce et al., 1985)
      • Visual cliff (depth perception)
      • Infants will look to the parent for an emotional cue of how to respond
    • Shared attention to the situation, transfer of information

    The Visual Cliff

    • Social referencing and the Visual Cliff example (Sorce et al., 1985).
    • Visual cliff (depth perception)
    • Infants will look to the parent for an emotional cue of how to respond
    • Shared attention to the situation, transfer of information

    Secondary Intersubjectivity (4)

    • Coordinate emotional response with another person
    • Still Face Experiment (Adamson & Frick, 2003)
      • Parent “freezes” and stops responding
      • The interaction breaks down
    • Attempts to repair the interaction (social engagement cues)
    • Social referencing and the Visual Cliff example (Sorce et al., 1985)
      • Visual cliff (depth perception)
      • Infants will look to the parent for an emotional cue of how to respond
    • Shared attention to the situation, transfer of information

    Secondary Intersubjectivity (5)

    • Beginnings of intentional communication by the infant signified by:
      • Use of eye contact/pointing to direct another's attention
      • Consistent use of vocalization to indicate a specific goal
      • Evidence of child waiting for a response
      • Persistence if not understood

    Lecture 2 Outline

    • Two main stages of early social skills: primary and secondary intersubjectivity
    • Two key modes of communication important for language acquisition: turn-taking and joint attention

    Modes of communication

    • Turn-taking
    • Joint Attention
      • Sharing a focus of attention
      • Following attention
      • Directing attention

    Turn-Taking (1)

    • Young infants (from around 3 months) alternate vocalizations with their caregivers (Stern et al., 1975)
    • By 12 months, very few overlaps between speakers (Schaffer et al., 1977)
    • Proto-conversations (Bruner, 1975) - similarities between turn-taking in early vocalizations and later conversation

    Joint Attention (1)

    • Initial interactions incorporate: either the child and adult or the child and an object

    Joint Attention (2)

    • Joint attention = triadic interaction involving child, adult and object/event
    • Shared awareness of the shared attention

    Joint Attention: Sharing Attention (1)

    • Social referencing (Sorce et al., 1985)
    • Visual Cliff
    • By 9 months, children look to adult in unfamiliar or threatening situations to gauge emotional response

    Joint Attention: Sharing Attention (2)

    • At 9 months, child and adult interact over an object. Child switches gaze between adult and object (Carpenter et al., 1997)
    • Caregiver talks about object of joint attention (West & Iverson, 2017)

    Joint Attention: Sharing Attention (3)

    • (Examples of language in a shared attention situation)

    Joint Attention: Sharing Attention (4)

    • Joint attention skills predict later language skills (e.g., Tomasello & Farrar, 1986)
    • Children better learn the names for objects when they are attending to the object when it is named (Pereira, Smith & Yu, 2014)

    Joint Attention: Sharing Attention (5)

    • Routines (Bruner, 1983)
      • Much of early language is learnt in routines
      • Caregivers structure routines around child
      • Routines create a shared context. The child knows what comes next
      • Highly repetitive routines provide a scaffold for language learning
      • Routines differ in the types of words used (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2018)

    Joint attention: Sharing attention (6)

    • During 1st year, mothers constantly monitor the child’s line of regard. When child’s attention shifts from desired object of attention, mothers attempt to regain child’s attention (Collis & Schaffer, 1975)
    • Mother initially solely responsible for establishing shared topic and providing relevant language
    • Mother’s sensitivity to child’s focus of attention related to child’s vocabulary development – children more likely to learn the referent for an object they attend to than for one their attention is directed to (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986)
    • Twins often show language delay – linked to amount of time spent in joint attention episodes with mother (Tomasello et al., 1986), highlighting the mother’s role

    Getting into joint attention

    • Following Attention
      • Following points
      • Following eye gaze
    • Direction Attention
      • Imperative Pointing
      • Declarative Pointing

    Joint attention: Following points

    • 9 months: can follow point in front of another person
    • 12 months: begin to check back with pointer
    • 14 months follows point across line of sight (Carpenter et al., 1998)

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (1)

    • Gaze following allows us to track where someone else is looking and join them, engaging in joint attention
    • By 9 months, infants will turn to follow an adult’s gaze and share an object of attention with another (Scaife & Bruner, 1975)
    • But why?

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (2)

    • Do infants understand that when someone alters their gaze, if it is because that person sees something interesting?

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (3)

    • Infants aren’t tracking the gaze specifically until around 18 months (Corkum & Moore, 1995; Moore & Corkum, 1998)

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (4)

    • 12-month-olds will follow a head turn...even if the person is blindfolded!
    • 14-month-olds will only follow when the eyes are visible (Brooks and Meltzoff, 2002)

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (5)

    • But, 12-month-olds will gaze follow if the partner has their eyes open, but not if the eyes are closed! (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2002)

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (6)

    • Infants follow gaze behind barriers (Moll & Tomasello, 2004).
    • Baby’s around 12 months do so too

    Joint attention: Following attention Gaze Following (7)

    • It can be tricky to determine motives for infant gaze following
    • Conflicting evidence about when children are following because they think the looker sees something interesting
    • 18 months, but some evidence in infants as young as 12 months

    Understanding communicative intentions (1)

    • Can children understand that adult intends to communicate information to them?
    • Behne et al. (2005) look at whether 14-, 18-, and 24-month-olds will follow a helper’s point. Do they understand that there is a shared goal of finding the toy?

    Understanding communicative intentions (2)

    • Infants follow both point and gaze direction to retrieve object of interest (Behne et al., 2005)

    Understanding communicative intentions (3)

    • Infants do not follow non-communicative points and gaze direction (Behne et al., 2005)

    Joint attention: Directing attention (1)

    • Pointing
      • Imperative – to get adult to do something
      • Declarative – to direct adult’s attention to something
    • 9 months, child points to object then checks mother’s line of regard, by 18 months child checks mother’s line of regard before pointing to an object.
    • Will first check that caregiver is paying attention to them before pointing to object

    Joint attention: Directing attention, Criticisms

    • Imperative pointing: infant learns that if she points, she gets what she wants (Camaioni, 1993)
    • Declarative pointing: infant learns that she gets more attention by pointing at things (e.g., Moore & D'Entremont, 2001)
    • BUT 12-month-olds indicate when adult finds “wrong” object (e.g., Liszkowski, et al., 2006) and respond negatively when attention is directed to the infant and not the object (e.g., Boundy et al., 2019)
    • Babies get agitated when adults find wrong object.

    Conclusions

    • Two main stages of social development: Primary Intersubjectivity and Secondary Intersubjectivity
    • Key communication skills:
      • Turn Taking
      • Joint Attention
    • Development of social skills and understanding of communicative intent

    Critical Evaluations

    • Some evidence that infants understand that others can have thoughts and intentions
    • Do you think this evidence is strong?
    • Lower-level explanations (just following movements, liking attention)
    • Why is it difficult to make claims about intents and thoughts in infants?
    • Are these skills necessary precursors for language acquisition?
    • Artificial Intelligence?
    • Social skills and different levels of language acquisition?
    • Word meaning? Syntax?

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    Lecture 2: Early Social Skills and Language Development PDF

    Description

    Explore the fascinating concepts of primary and secondary intersubjectivity in infants and their implications for early language development. This quiz delves into key modes of communication, the significance of joint attention, and developmental milestones related to social interactions. Perfect for students studying psychology or child development.

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