Joint attention social cues influence infant learning

Abstract

We examined the effects of differing social cues on object processing in 9- and 12-month-old infants. An adult experimenter spoke to the infants about a novel object in two conditions. In the Joint Attention condition, the experimenter spoke to the infant about the toy while alternating her gaze between the toy and the infant. The Object Only condition was identical, except that she gazed at the toy and at a spot on the ceiling, but never at the infant. In test trials, infants viewed the toy used in the social interaction along with a toy that they had not seen before. We compared the amount of time that infants looked at the novel toy as a function of condition. We found that 12-month-old infants looked at the novel toy equally following both conditions. In contrast, 9-month-olds looked at the novel toy significantly longer following the Joint Attention condition relative to the Object Only condition. These results suggest that joint attention interactions significantly impacted object processing in the 9-month-old infants, but not 12-month-old infants. The discussion focuses on the potential role of joint attention in early learning.