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From abstract intentions to specific goals: Human infants’ understanding of actions they cannot perform
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Description: Does knowledge of other people’s minds grow from concrete experience to abstract concepts? Classic research from developmental science suggests that before infants reach for objects, they do not see others’ reaches as intentional. Here, we test an alternative hypothesis: that young infants view reaching as undertaken for a purpose, but they are ignorant of the specific goals people tend to pursue. We show that 3-month-old infants, who cannot reach for objects, learn to attribute both object goals and spatial goals to other people, after seeing them reach for the same object regardless of where it is, or to the same location regardless of what is there. Thus, abstract representations of others’ intentions support infants’ rational learning about other minds. This project includes the preregistrations, stimuli, data, and analysis scripts for the present preprint.
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