Abstract
After 4 decades of research on infant behavior and development, the time has come to shift our focus from What infants do to Why they do it when they do—to move beyond the single-minded search for mechanism and to consider the larger question of function. Infants are not merely incomplete adults who simply get better with age, but they are different organisms altogether, perfectly adapted at every point in ontogeny. For this reason, answers to the Why question will necessarily build upon an evolutionary framework that reflects the infant's changing “occupations” or ecological niches. Through this pursuit, infancy researchers will develop a more integrative science and a greater sense of community.
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