Abstract
Abstract. We examined the hypothesis that infants’ early action segmentation is guided by knowledge about simple movement-effect associations. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with a video showing a sequence of two actions, each a simple movement-effect unit. At test, infants saw two types of test clips derived from the original video: A ”complete action” consisting of one of the original actions, and a ”compound action” consisting of the transition between the first and second action, preserving temporal contiguity but disrupting the movement-effect unit. Twelve-month-olds displayed a significant looking preference for complete over compound actions. Nine-month-olds displayed a corresponding but weaker pattern. We conclude that between 9 and 12 months infants begin to segment sequences of actions into simple movement-effect units.
Zusammenfassung. Untersucht wurde die Hyphothese, dass die frühe Segmentierung von Handlungen in einzelne Einheiten von dem Wissen über einfache Handlungs-Effekt Assoziationen geleitet wird. Neun und zwölf Monate alte Säuglinge wurden an ein Video familiarisiert, in dem eine Abfolge von zwei Handlungen zu sehen waren, die jeweils eine einzelne Bewegungs-Effekt Einheit beinhalteten. Im Test wurden den Kindern zwei Arten von Videos dargeboten, die Ausschnitte aus dem Familiarisierungsvideo enthielten: eine „vollständige Handlung”, die eine der ursprünglichen Handlungen darstellt und eine „zusammengesetzte Handlung”, die den Übergang zwischen den beiden Familiarisierungshandlung darstellte. Diese bewahrte zwar die zeitliche Abfolge, zerstörte aber die Bewegungs-Effekt Einheit. Zwölf Monate alte Säuglinge zeigten eine Blickpräferenz für vollständige im Vergleich zu zusammengesetzten Handlungen. Neun Monate alte Kinder zeigten ein ähnliches, aber deutlich schwächeres Blickmuster. Wir schließen daraus, dass Kinder zwischen neun und zwölf Monaten beginnen, Handlungen in einfache Bewegungs-Effekt Einheiten zu zerlegen.
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