From: The Wall Street Journal
Are Babies Able to See What Others Feel?
When adults look out at other people, we have what psychologists and philosophers call a “theory of mind”—that is, we think that the people around us have feelings, emotions and beliefs just as we do. And we somehow manage to read complex mental states in their sounds and movements.
But what do babies see when they look out at other people? They know so much less than we do. It’s not hard to imagine that, as we coo and mug for them, they only see strange bags of skin stuffed into clothes, with two restless dots at the top and a hole underneath that opens and closes.
Our sophisticated grown-up understanding of other people develops through a long process of learning and experience. But babies may have more of a head start than we imagine. A new study by Andrew Meltzoff and his colleagues at the University of Washington, published in January in the journal Developmental Science, finds that our connection to others starts very early.
Dr. Meltzoff has spent many years studying the way that babies imitate the expressions and actions of other people. Imitation suggests that babies do indeed connect their own internal feelings to the behavior of others. In the new study, the experimenters looked at how this ability is reflected in baby’s brains.
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Wall Street Journal
More of our Members in the Media >
APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.
Please login with your APS account to comment.