Reference and attitude in infant pointing
We investigated two main components of infant declarative pointing,
reference and attitude, in two experiments with a total of 106 preverbal
infants at 1;0. When an experimenter (E) responded to the declarative
pointing of these infants by attending to an incorrect referent (with
positive attitude), infants repeated pointing within trials to redirect
E’s attention, showing an understanding of E’s reference and active
message repair. In contrast, when E identified infants’ referent
correctly but displayed a disinterested attitude, infants did not repeat
pointing within trials and pointed overall in fewer trials, showing an
understanding of E’s unenthusiastic attitude about the referent. When
E attended to infants’ intended referent AND shared interest in it,
infants were most satisfied, showing no message repair within trials and
pointing overall in more trials. These results suggest that by twelve
months of age infant declarative pointing is a full communicative act
aimed at sharing with others both attention to a referent and a specific
attitude about that referent.
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