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- Title
Infant pointing: communication to cooperate or communication to learn?
- Authors
Southgate, Victoria; Van Maanen, Catharine; Csibra, Gergely
- Abstract
Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) present compelling data to support the view that infant pointing, from the outset, is communicative and deployed in many of the same situations in which adults would ordinarily point for one another, either to share their interest in something, or to informatively help the other person. This commentary concurs with the view that infant pointing is a communicative gesture, but challenges their interpretation of the motives behind pointing in 12-month-olds. An alternative account is proposed, according to which infant pointing is neither declarative nor imperative, but interrogative, and rather than being driven by the motive to share or help, it may serve a powerful cultural learning mechanism by which infants can obtain information from knowledgeable adults.
- Subjects
POINTING (Gesture); INTERPERSONAL communication in infants; PERCEPTION in infants; REASONING in infants; ABILITY in infants; CHILD development
- Publication
Child Development, 2007, Vol 78, Issue 3, p735
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01028.x