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The Development of Body Structure Knowledge in Infancy
Author(s) -
Bhatt Ramesh S.,
Hock Alyson,
White Hannah,
Jubran Rachel,
Galati Ashley
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12162
Subject(s) - psychology , set (abstract data type) , cognition , face (sociological concept) , body of knowledge , cognitive development , social learning , cognitive psychology , social cognition , developmental psychology , cognitive science , knowledge management , sociology , computer science , neuroscience , social science , pedagogy , programming language
Although we know much about the development of face processing, we know considerably less about the development of body knowledge—despite bodies also being significant sources of social information. One set of studies indicated that body structure knowledge is poor during the 1st year of life and spawned a model that posits that, unlike the development of face knowledge, which benefits from innate propensities and dedicated learning mechanisms, the development of body knowledge relies on general learning mechanisms and develops slowly. In this article, we review studies on infants' knowledge about the structure of bodies and their processing of gender and emotion that paint a different picture. Although questions remain, a general social cognition system likely engenders similar trajectories of development of knowledge about faces and bodies, and may equip developing infants with the capacity to obtain socially critical information from many sources.