Automated gaze-contingent objects elicit orientation following in 8-month-old infants

Deligianni, F. , Senju, A., Gergely, G. and Csibra, G. (2011) Automated gaze-contingent objects elicit orientation following in 8-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 47(6), pp. 1499-1503. (doi: 10.1037/a0025659) (PMID:21942669) (PMCID:PMC4636044)

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Abstract

The current study tested whether the purely amodal cue of contingency elicits orientation following behavior in 8-month-old infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with automated objects without human features that did or did not react contingently to the infants' fixations recorded by an eye tracker. We found that an object's occasional orientation toward peripheral targets was reciprocated by a congruent visual orientation following response by infants only when it had displayed gaze-contingent interactivity. Our finding demonstrates that infants' gaze-following behavior does not depend on the presence of a human being. The results are consistent with the idea that, in 8-month-old infants, the detection of contingent reactivity, like other communicative signals, can itself elicit the illusion of being addressed.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Deligianni, Dr Fani
Authors: Deligianni, F., Senju, A., Gergely, G., and Csibra, G.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Journal Name:Developmental Psychology
Publisher:American Psychological Association
ISSN:0012-1649
ISSN (Online):1939-0599
Published Online:26 September 2011

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