Observed joint attention promotes 9-month-old infants’ learning about novel objects

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that, at least by the end of the second year of life, toddlers can learn about objects by merely observing others’ social interactions (Akhtar, Jipson, & Callanan, 2001; Fitch, Lieberman, Luyster, & Arunachalam, 2020; Floor & Akhtar, 2006). In this study we investigated whether already 9-month-old infants possess this ability, and whether infants’ learning from others’ interactions depends on similar factors as their learning through direct interactions with others (Cleveland & Striano, 2007; Okumura, Kanakogi, Kobayashi, & Itakura, 2020). Sixty-four 9-month-old infants from Leipzig (Germany) were tested in a looking-time based object-encoding task. In Experiment 1, thirty-two infants (n = 13 female; M = 291.0 days, SD = 10.13 days) were presented with four types of videos showing one object together with two adults. Based on a two-by-two design, the scenarios varied systematically regarding the ostensive context between the two adults (ostensive vs. non-ostensive), and the adults’ referential looking to the object (looking toward vs. away from the object). To assess infants’ encoding performance we measured their looking times to the familiarized object when it subsequently appeared next to a novel object, assuming that an enhanced novelty preference would reversely indicate greater encoding of the familiarized object (Reid & Striano, 2005). Infants showed an increased novelty preference if they had observed two adults in an ostensive context looking at the familiarized object together (effect of the interaction between third-party ostensive context and referential looking: χ2(1) = 4.03, p = .04, estimate = −.08, SE = .04). In Experiment 2, we found the corresponding result pattern in a matched first-party design during which thirty-two infants (n = 16 female; M = 282.69 days, SD = 8.4 days) were directly addressed by one single adult on screen. Infants’ encoding was enhanced when the adult looked in the direction of the infant before looking at the object (effect of the interaction between first-party ostensive context and referential looking: χ2(1) = 5.77, p = .02, estimate = −.11, SE = .04). Together, our findings suggest that the capacity to learn through observation of others’ interactions emerges already in the first postnatal year, and that it may depend on similar factors as infants’ referential learning during direct social engagement. In both situations, the crucial interplay between ostensive context and referential gazing to an object selectively enhanced infants’ encoding of novel information. At a broader level, our findings support the idea that joint attention per se, that is, independent of whether experienced through active participation or via observation of others, may represent a culturally universal opportunity to transmit generic knowledge (Akhtar & Jaswal, 2019; Parise & Rogoff, 2009).

Authors

• Maleen Thiele, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
  Presenting Author

• Christine Michel, Leipzig University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robert Hepach, University of Oxford
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel Haun, Max Planck Institute
  Non-Presenting Author