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A cross-sectional study of referential looking and gestures in late infancy

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posted on 2023-06-07, 18:18 authored by David LeavensDavid Leavens, B K Todd, A Freeman, R Rose, S Terry
Human infants gesture with gaze-alternating behaviour between distal objects and social partners by the end of infancy, but it has not been previously established that infants who gesture differ systematically in their visual behaviour from infants who don't gesture in the same experimental circumstances. In a study of 67 babies from 6 to 18 months of age, we report that (a) gestural production increased with age, (b) later-born babies were more likely to gesture than were first-born babies, (c) babies who gestured exhibited more referential looking, overall, than did babies who didn't gesture, (d) although babies who pointed with the index finger were not more likely to exhibit referential looking on the same trial in which they gestured, compared to babies who exhibited 'reaches', they did exhibit more referential looking overall, and (e) whole-hand extensions ('reaches') were directed usually towards social partners, whilst index-finger points were usually directed to an animated doll.

History

Publication status

  • Published

ISSN

0029-6651

Publisher

Proceedings of the British Psychological Society

Issue

2

Volume

11

Page range

202

Presentation Type

  • paper

Event name

Developmental Psychology Section Annual Conference

Event location

University of Sussex, England

Event type

conference

Event date

5-8th September, 2002

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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