The Development of Intuitive Psychology

Humans effortlessly and pervasively understand themselves and others as autonomous agents who engage in goal-directed actions. Some of these actions are directed to objects and cause changes in their physical states. Other actions are directed to other agents and cause changes in their mental states, primarily through acts of communication. This project investigates the emergence of these abilities through behavioral and computational studies of human infants.

One project investigates whether infants expect agents to choose actions that minimize cost in time (i.e., by choosing to reach a goal by moving on a shorter path rather than a longer one) or effort (i.e., by choosing to displace a light obstacle rather than a heavy one).

A second project investigates infants' understanding of acts of helping as instrumental actions guided by social goals. They test the hypothesis that infants first construe helping as imitation, signaling social attention but not instrumental goals.

A third project probes young infants' understanding of imitation as a social action, performed by and for social agents but not solitary agents or inanimate objects.

A fourth project investigates infants' emerging understanding of speech as conveying information about inanimate objects from one social agent to another.