Study title

We propose experimental studies on how the perception of cause-and-effect relations in simple schematic events develops. If square A moves towards square B which moves upon contact, adults and children as young as 3 years see this as A launching B, thereby relating minimal perceptual information to complex notions of physical causality. In contrast, if B begins to move before A can reach it, without contact, adults and young children see this as B reacting to A -- trying to run away from it -- relating minimal information to social/psychological causality. Babies also see the causality in these events, but it is not clear yet whether they, like older observers, see the reaction event as an instance of goal-directed motion. Such perceptions may be important because they can facilitate development : they could help children identify and analyse causal events at a time when learnt knowledge about these events and reasoning ability is still scarce. In fact, it has even been argued that perceptual causality may be one mechanism that allows infants to first carve up their world into its physical and social components. We have already found that 6-months-olds are sensitive to causation-at-a-distance in the reaction event, just as they are to contact causality in the launch event. This is striking because standard indicators of infant social understanding do not typically emerge until a few months later. Here, we propose to consider whether even younger infants are already sensitive to causation-at-a-distance. In addition, we propose to study in more detail the relation between perception of causation-at-a-distance and the perception of animate agents and their goal-directed actions. To do this, we will assess infants pattern of visual attention : we repeatedly show them one event until their attention wanes, then measure its recovery upon presentation of a new event. With appropriate design of stimuli for experimental and control groups, this allows us to evaluate...