Infant pointing: Communication to cooperate or communication to learn?

Victoria Southgate, Catharine Van Maanen, Gergely Csibra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)735-740
Number of pages6
JournalChild Development
Volume78
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2007
Externally publishedYes

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