Kristin Liebal

Infants Use Shared Experience to Interpret Pointing Gestures.

We investigated whether 1-year-old infants use their shared experience with an adult to determine the meaning of a pointing gesture. In the first study, after two adults had each shared a different activity with the infant, one of the adults pointed to a target object. Eighteen- but not 14-month-olds responded appropriately to the pointing gesture based on the particular activity they had previously shared with that particular adult. In the second study, 14-month-olds were successful in a simpler procedure in which the pointing adult either had or had not shared a relevant activity with the infant prior to the pointing. Infants just beginning to learn language thus already show a complex understanding of the pragmatics of cooperative communication in which shared experience with particular individuals plays a crucial role.

Examining correlates of cooperation in autism Imitation, joint attention, and understanding intentions

The goal of the current study was to examine the contribution of three early social skills that may provide a foundation for cooperative performance in autism: (1) imitation, (2) joint attention, and (3) understanding of other peoples intentions regarding actions on objects. Fourteen children with autistic disorder (AD) and 15 children with other developmental disabilities (DDs) matched on non-verbal developmental age (AD, mean 27.7, SD 9.8; DD, mean 33.4, SD 11.1) and verbal developmental age (AD, mean 21.5, SD 12.3; DD, mean 28.4, SD 11.0) participated in the study. Children with autism showed poorer performance on imitation and joint attention measures, but not on the intentionality task. Multiple regression analyses showed that imitation skills and joint attention contributed independently to cooperation, above and beyond the understanding of intentions of actions on objects.

Helping and Cooperation in Children with Autism.

Helping and cooperation are central to human social life. Here, we report two studies investigating these social behaviors in children with autism and children with developmental delay. In the first study, both groups of children helped the experimenter attain her goals. In the second study, both groups of children cooperated with an adult, but fewer children with autism performed the tasks successfully. When the adult stopped interacting at a certain moment, children with autism produced fewer attempts to re-engage her, possibly indicating that they had not formed a shared goal/shared intentions with her. These results are discussed in terms of the prerequisite cognitive and motivational skills and propensities underlying social behavior.

Eighteen-month-olds learn novel words through overhearing

The prototypical word learning situation in western, middle-class cultures is dyadic: an adult addresses a child directly, ideally in a manner sensitive to their current focus of attention. But young children also seem to learn many of their words in polyadic situations through overhearing. Extending the previous work of Akhtar and colleagues, in the current two studies we gave 18-month-old infants opportunities to acquire novel words through overhearing in situations that were a bit more complex: they did not socially interact with the adult who used the new word before the word learning situation began, and the way the adult used the new word was less transparent in that it was neither a naming nor a directive speech act. In both studies, infants learned words equally well (and above chance) whether they were directly addressed or had to eavesdrop on two adults. Almost from the beginning, young children employ diverse learning strategies for acquiring new words.

Cultural learning and cultural creation

U. Muller, J. Carpendale, N. Budwig, B. Sokol, Developmental Relations Between Forms of Social Interaction and Forms of Thought: An Introduction. M. Bickhard, Are You Social? The Ontological and Developmental Emergence of the Person. J. Martin, Perspectives and Persons: Ontological, Constitutive Possibilities. T. Behne, M. Carpenter, M. Grafenhain, K. Liebal, U. Liszkowski, H. Moll, H.Rakoczy, M. Tomasello, F. Warneken, E. Wyman, Cultural Learning and Cultural Creation. P. Hobson, J. Meyer, In the Beginning is Relation and Then What? V. Reddy, Experiencing the Social. M. B. Bibok, J.I.M. Carpendale, C. Lewis, Social Knowledge as Social Skill: An Action Based View of Social Understanding. J. Dunn, Relationships and Childrens Discovery of Mind. G. Duveen, C. Psaltis, The Constructive Role of Asymmetry in Social Interaction. M. Bamberg, Selves and Identities in the Making: The Study of Microgenetic Processes in Interactive Practices. C. R. Hallpike, The Anthropology of Moral Development. E. Turiel, Individuals and Social Change.