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Fourteen‐month‐old infants track the language comprehension of communicative partners
Author(s) -
Forgács Bálint,
Parise Eugenio,
Csibra Gergely,
Gergely György,
Jacquey Lisa,
Gervain Judit
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/desc.12751
Subject(s) - psychology , n400 , comprehension , perspective (graphical) , cognitive psychology , object (grammar) , semantics (computer science) , linguistics , cognition , developmental psychology , event related potential , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , neuroscience , programming language
Infants employ sophisticated mechanisms to acquire their first language, including some that rely on taking the perspective of adults as speakers or listeners. When do infants first show awareness of what other people understand? We tested 14‐month‐old infants in two experiments measuring event‐related potentials. In Experiment 1, we established that infants produce the N400 effect, a brain signature of semantic violations, in a live object naming paradigm in the presence of an adult observer. In Experiment 2, we induced false beliefs about the labeled objects in the adult observer to test whether infants keep track of the other person's comprehension. The results revealed that infants reacted to the semantic incongruity heard by the other as if they encountered it themselves: they exhibited an N400‐like response, even though labels were congruous from their perspective. This finding demonstrates that infants track the linguistic understanding of social partners.