Joint actions affect infants’ cognitive word–object processing

Abstract

Abstract This study focuses on how salient, social, and interactional cues (solo vs. joint exploration) help 10-month-old infants (n = 66) to solve referential ambiguity, and examines the retention of word–object mappings. Results show that infants attend to salient objects when no other resources of information are available. When salient and social cues conflict, infants follow social information for referent selection. By comparing solo and joint object exploration, this study provides first evidence that joint actions modify the duration of infants’ attention to objects not only during object play but also in a retention test. During object play, joint actions with a social partner sustain infants’ attention to a referent. In the retention trials, joint actions affect infants’ attention patterns by reducing their initial saliency bias. This, in turn, indicates a change in cognitive processing of the word–object link.