Social cognition in infancy: A critical review of research on higher order abilities

Abstract

This paper reviews early precursors to social cognition in infancy, then critically reviews infancy work suggesting goal attribution to human agents in the first year of life and theory of mind (ToM) abilities (assessed through a modified false belief task) in the second year of life. Overall, methodological problems and statistical limitations compound data interpretation, which would be equivocal despite these limitations. The authors find no support for high-order social cognitive abilities in infancy. The discussion focuses on how the field of social cognition in infancy should build theories from the bottom up, assessing how simpler precursors change over time and combine to give rise to socially competent individuals.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a 1 + 3 postgraduate studentship from The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to the second author.