Infant Understanding of the Referential Nature of Looking

Abstract

To determine whether infants follow the gaze of adults because they understand the referential nature of looking or because they use the adult turn as a predictive cue for the location of interesting events, the gaze-following behavior of 14- and 18-month-olds was examined in the joint visual attention paradigm under varying visual obstruction conditions: (a) when the experimenter's line of sight was obstructed by opaque screens (screen condition), (b) when the experimenter's view was not obstructed (no-screen condition), and (c) when the opaque screens contained a large transparent window (window condition). It was assumed that infants who simply use adult turns as predictive cues would turn equally in all 3 conditions but infants who comprehend the referential nature of looking would turn maximally when the experimenter's vision was not blocked and minimally when her vision was blocked. Eighteen-month-olds responded in accord with the referential position (turning much more in the no-screen and window conditions than in the screen condition). However, 14-month-olds yielded a mixed response pattern (turning less in the screen than the no-screen condition but turning still less in the window condition). The results suggest that, unlike 18-month-olds, 14-month-olds do not understand the intentional nature of looking and are unclear about the requirements for successful looking.