ISSN : 1229-0718
The present research examined how Korean infants interpret others' pointing actions. In Experiment 1, the infants in the touch condition were familiarized with an event in which the actor pointed to one of the two objects. After the positions of objects were switched, each infant received test events of two types: The actor pointed to the new goal object(new-goal event) or the old goal object(old-goal event). In the control condition, there was only one object during familiarization. As a result, the infants in the touch condition looked reliably longer at the new-goal event than the old-goal event. In contrast, the infants in the control condition looked about equally at both events. In Experiment 2, 9-month-olds looked reliably longer at the new-goal event even though there was a 3.5cm gap between the actor's index finger and the target object. In Experiment 3, 7-month-olds were tested in the same procedure as that of the touch condition in Experiment 1. They looked about equally at both events. The results showed that between 7 and 9-month-old Korean infants develop their ability to understand others' pointing actions as goal-directed.
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