Caregivers and strangers: The influence of familiarity on gaze following and learning

• DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.11.005
• Publication Date: 2016-11-26T20:16:17Z
• Authors: Ryan A. Barry-Anwar; Jessica L. Burris; Katharine Graf Estes; Susan M. Rivera
• Keywords: Male; 05 social sciences; Infant; Recognition, Psychology; Fixation, Ocular; Caregivers; Infant Behavior; Humans; Learning; Attention; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Cues

This study examines how social cues facilitate learning by manipulating the familiarity of a social cue. Participants were forty-nine infants between 12-18 months. Infants were taught a novel label for a novel object under two pre-recorded gaze conditions-one in which the caregiver was seen gazing at a novel object while a verbal label was played, and one in which a stranger was seen gazing at a novel object while a verbal label was played. Learning was only evident in the caregiver condition and only in the infants most skilled at following their caregivers' gaze. The results of the current study suggest that both the familiarity of the cuer and the infant's own ability to follow the gaze of the cuer play important roles in the infant's learning in this task.