Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:31:33.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Infants actively seek and transmit knowledge via communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Marina Bazhydai
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Fylde College, Lancaster University, LancasterLA1 4YW, [email protected]
Paul L. Harris
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA02138, USA. [email protected]

Abstract

Supporting the central claim that knowledge representation is more basic than belief representation, we focus on the emerging evidence for preverbal infants' active and selective communication based on their representation of both knowledge and ignorance. We highlight infants' ontogenetically early deliberate information seeking and information transmission in the context of active social learning, arguing that these capacities are unique to humans.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bazhydai, M., Silverstein, P., Parise, E., & Westermann, G. (2020a). Two-year old children preferentially transmit simple actions but not pedagogically demonstrated actions. Developmental Science, 23(5), e12941. doi: 10.1111/desc.12941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazhydai, M., Twomey, K., & Westermann, G. (2020b). Curiosity and exploration. In: Benson, J.B. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of infant and early childhood development (Vol. 1, 2nd ed., pp. 370378). Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.05804-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazhydai, M., Westermann, G., & Parise, E. (2020c). “I don't know but I know who to ask”: 12-month-olds actively seek information from knowledgeable adults. Developmental Science, 23(5), e12938. doi: 10.1111/desc.12938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. (2014). Infants learn what they want to learn: Responding to infant pointing leads to superior learning. PLOS ONE 9(10):e108817. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108817.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begus, K., Gliga, T., & Southgate, V. (2016). Infants’ preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(44), 1239712402. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1603261113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begus, K., & Southgate, V. (2012). Infant pointing serves an interrogative function. Developmental Science, 15(5), 611617. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01160.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begus, K., & Southgate, V. (2018). Curious learners: How infants’ motivation to learn shapes and is shaped by infants’ interactions with the social world. In Saylor, M. and Ganea, P. (Eds.), Active learning from infancy to childhood (pp. 1337). Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77182-3_2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooker, I., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2013). Is a bird an apple? The effect of speaker labeling accuracy on infants’ word learning, imitation, and helping behaviors. Infancy, 18, E46E68. doi: 10.1111/infa.12027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burdett, E. R., Dean, L. G., & Ronfard, S. (2017). A diverse and flexible teaching toolkit facilitates the human capacity for cumulative culture. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 9(4), 807818. doi: 10.1007/s13164-017-0345-4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flynn, E. (2008). Investigating children as cultural magnets: Do young children transmit redundant information along diffusion chains? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1509), 35413551. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galazka, M. A., Gredebäck, G., & Ganea, P. A. (2016). Mapping language to the mind: Toddlers’ online processing of language as a reflection of speaker's knowledge and ignorance. Cognitive Development, 40, 18. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2016.07.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goupil, L., & Kouider, S. (2016). Behavioral and neural indices of metacognitive sensitivity in preverbal infants. Current Biology, 26(22), 30383045. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goupil, L., Romand-Monnier, M., & Kouider, S. (2016). Infants ask for help when they know they don't know. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(13), 34923496. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1515129113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L. (2017). Tell, ask, repair: Early responding to discordant reality. Motivation Science, 3, 275286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, P. L. (2020). The point, the shrug, and the question of clarification. In Butler, L., Ronfard, S. & Corriveau, K. (Eds.), The questioning child: Insights from psychology and education (pp. 2950). Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, P. L., Bartz, D. T., & Rowe, M. L. (2017). Young children communicate their ignorance and ask questions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 78847891. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1620745114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L., Koenig, M. A., Corriveau, K. H., & Jaswal, V. K. (2018). Cognitive foundations of learning from testimony. Annual Review of Psychology, 69, 251273. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L., & Lane, J. D. (2014). Infants understand how testimony works. Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy, 33, 443458. doi: 10.1007/s11245-013-9180-0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyes, C. (2016). Who knows? Metacognitive social learning strategies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(3), 204213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenig, M. A., & Echols, C. H. (2003). Infants’ understanding of false labeling events: The referential roles of words and the speakers who use them. Cognition, 87(3), 179208. doi: 10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00002-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenig, M. A., & Woodward, A. L. (2010). Sensitivity of 24-month-olds to the prior inaccuracy of the source: Possible mechanisms. Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 815826. doi: 10.1037/a0019664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovács, Á. M., Tauzin, T., Téglás, E., Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2014). Pointing as epistemic request: 12-month-olds point to receive new information. Infancy, 19(6), 543557. doi: 10.1111/infa.12060.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M. (2006). 12-and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. Journal of Cognition and Development, 7(2), 173187. doi: 10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Twelve-month-olds communicate helpfully and appropriately for knowledgeable and ignorant partners. Cognition, 108(3), 732739. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.06.013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucca, K., & Wilbourn, M. P. (2018). Communicating to learn: Infants’ pointing gestures result in optimal learning. Child Development, 89(3), 941960. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12707.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meng, X, & Hashiya, K. (2014). Pointing behavior in infants reflects the communication partner's attentional and knowledge states: A possible case of spontaneous informing. PLOS ONE, 9(9), e107579. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Musgrave, S., Lonsdorf, E., Morgan, D., Prestipino, M., Bernstein-Kurtycz, L., Mundry, R., & Sanz, C. (2020). Teaching varies with task complexity in wild chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(2), 969976. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1907476116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Neill, D. K. (1996). Two-year-old children's sensitivity to a parent's knowledge state when making requests. Child Development, 67(2), 659677. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01758.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronfard, S., & Harris, P. L. (2015). The active role played by human learners is key to understanding the efficacy of teaching in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, 4344. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X14000594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperber, D., Clément, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., & Wilson, D. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language, 25(4), 359393. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01394.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stenberg, G. (2013). Do 12-month-old infants trust a competent adult? Infancy, 18(5), 873904. doi: 10.1111/infa.12011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, S., & Ziv, M. (2012). Teaching is a natural cognitive ability for humans. Mind, Brain, and Education, 6(4), 186196. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-228X.2012.01156.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaish, A., Demir, O., & Baldwin, D. (2011). Thirteen- and 18-month-old infants recognize when they need referential information. Social Development, 20(3), 431449. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00601.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Schaik, C. P., Pradhan, G. R., & Tennie, C. (2019). Teaching and curiosity: Sequential drivers of cumulative cultural evolution in the hominin lineage. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 73(1), 2. doi: 10.1007/s00265-018-2610-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vredenburgh, C., Kushnir, T., & Casasola, M. (2015). Pedagogical cues encourage toddlers’ transmission of recently demonstrated functions to unfamiliar adults. Developmental Science, 18(4), 645654. doi: 10.1111/desc.12233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed