Principal Investigator Elizabeth S Spelke
Project Website http://cbmm.mit.edu/research/projects-thrust/development-intelligence/efficienc…
3-month-olds' goal representations are tested by exposing them to habituation stimuli showing an actor carrying out a simple goal oriented action (e.g. reaching for an object over a barrier and causing it to light up). Infants' expectations that this acction is motivated by a goal and should follow the principle of efficiency is studied by measuring infant looking time to efficient and inefficient reaches to the object once the barrier is removed.