Variability of signal sequences in turn-taking exchanges induces agency attribution in 10.5-mo-olds.

ABSTRACT: Infants' sensitivity to contingent reactivity as an indicator of intentional agency has been demonstrated by numerous referential gaze-following studies. Here we propose that variability of signal sequences in a turn-taking exchange provides an informative cue for infants to recognize interactions that may involve communicative information transfer between agents. Our experiment demonstrates that based on the abstract structural cue of variability of exchanged signal sequences, 10.5-mo-olds gaze-followed an entity's subsequent object-orienting action to fixate the same object. This gaze-following effect did not depend on the specific acoustic features of the sound signals produced. However, no orientation following to target was induced when the exchanged signal sequences were identical, o

SUBMITTER: Tauzin T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6681728 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature