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Social cognition in infancy 1
Author(s) -
Moore Chris
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
monographs of the society for research in child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1540-5834
pISSN - 0037-976X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5834.1998.tb02783.x
Subject(s) - citation , nova scotia , psychology , library science , cognition , sociology , computer science , psychiatry , ethnology
Social cognition refers to the understanding of how people, including both others and the self, behave. In general, humans make sense of their own and other people’s behaviour by making reference to internal psychological states, states such as emotions, thoughts and desires. Older children and adults can clearly show this understanding by the use of language referring to the psychological states and activities of themselves and others. However, even before the onset of language, infants may reveal this understanding through their behaviour towards others. Infants find other people fascinating from very early in life and, even before they can talk, are able to interact and communicate with them. Such interest and interaction depends on early forms of social cognition.