How infants learn about people and object causal action

PROJECT SUMMARY
Causal perception—or the ability to see and appreciate simple causal relations in the world—is a cornerstone of
early cognitive development and is what enables human beings to understand how the world works and how
effectively to navigate it. Despite extensive research on causal perception—which has tended to use simple,
Billiard-ball-like launching sequences in which some objects cause other objects to move—surprisingly little is
known about when or how infants learn about the causal properties of people and inanimate objects. For
example, at what point during the first year of life and by what developmental mechanism do infants learn that
people can cause other agents to act and move either at a distance or on direct contact, whereas inanimate
objects require contact to act and move? This project is designed to test two competitive theories for when and
how infants acquire this knowledge. According to the Core Knowledge perspective, infants are born with “core
systems” that enable them to know from birth (or shortly thereafter) that people and objects possess distinct
causal properties. According to the Associative Learning perspective, infants come to know—rather than are born
knowing—about people and object causal action via domain-general associative learning. This project is innovative
because it will be the first to use multiple, converging methods—namely, behavioral experiments and neural
network computational modeling—to elucidate the developmental timetable as well as developmental mechanism
by which infants learn about people and object causal action. This project will also be the first directly to test which
of two competing mechanistic theories explains infants’ knowledge about human and object causal action. Study
1 will establish when or the developmental timetable by which infants acquire this knowledge by testing infants
between 4 and 11 months of age. The Core Knowledge perspective predicts that this knowledge should be present
from the earliest ages tested, whereas the Associative Learning perspective predicts that this knowledge develops
sometime during the first year of life. Study 2 and the computational model will directly test whether core systems
or an associative-learning mechanism underlies infants’ knowledge about people and object causal action. This
project has the potential to advance our knowledge and understanding of the origins and cognitive bases of early
knowledge and the results from the completed project may have significant implications for physicians interested
in improving the learning outcomes for individuals at risk for severe social deficits such as individuals diagnosed
with an autism spectrum disorder.

Grant Number: 1R03HD112586-01
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Deon Benton