ORCID
- Denis Tatone: 0000-0001-6694-2656
Abstract
According to prominent accounts of early actionunderstanding, infants’ interpretation of others’ actions isundergirded by an assumption of utility maximization.However, it is unclear whether this assumption applies only toselection among actions or also to selection among goals. Here,using an eye-tracking paradigm, we investigated whether 14-to 16-month-old infants would predict an agent to choose alower-cost option when faced with two identical outcomes thatcould be reached at different costs. Infants directed more looksto the lower-cost option, and this effect was not merely due tovisual saliency. These findings corroborate the proposal thatinfants rely on utility maximization when reasoning about anagent’s likely goal and provide evidence of an early ability torepresent and compare alternatives in the context of goalattribution.
Publication Date
2024-06-03
Publication Title
Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society
Volume
46
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Schingloff-Nemecz, L., Tatone, D., Pomiechowska, B., & Csibra, G. (2024) 'Infants expect an agent to choose a goal that can be reached at a lower cost', Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society, 46. Retrieved from https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/psy-research/1122
