Emergence of the understanding of the other's intention: Re-enactment of intended acts from "failed-attempts" in 12- to 24-month olds

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to examine developmental emergence of the infants' ability to respond to the other's intention that cannot be observed from the surface of the act, adapting the behavioral re-enactment procedure developed by Meltzoff (1995). In Study 1, as a part of the questionnaire, we asked 156 caretakers to test their infants with the modified and simplified version of a re-enactment procedure. In Study 2, on the basis of the finding of Study 1, we directly tested 33 infants younger than ones tested in Meltzoff (1995) and confirmed that 15-17month olds could respond to the other's intention. The agreement of results between these different procedures suggested validity of the procedure used in Study 1. This procedure might work as a serviceable tool for the preparative study, which opens the possibility to use it as a part of test batteries for assessing infants' development in broad age.