Poulin-Dubois, D., Lepage, A. and Ferland, D., 1996. Infants

1
Poulin-Dubois, D., Lepage, A. and Ferland, D.,
1996. Infants concept of animacy. Cognitive
Development 11, pp. 1936.

• Theory
• By the end of the first year, infants restrict
  spontaneous motion and contingency that acts at a
  distance to animate objects.
• Methods
• 9- to 12- month olds, N37, 58, 28
• In E1 and E2, autonomous motion or motion
  controlled from a distance was contrasted with a
  baseline condition in which the object was
  stationary and could, therefore, be categorized
  by the infant as inanimate.
• In E3, compared the infants reactions to the
  same motions in the robot versus a human stranger

• Findings
• E112-month-old infants showed more negative
  affect when a radio-controlled robot seemed to
  move independently than when the same object was
  stationary.
• The same independent motion in an adult stranger
  appeared to have no impact on the infants
  behaviors.
• E2 Even 9-month-olds seem to judge anomalous
• the independent motion of an inanimate object
  (also the case when mother verbally controlled
  the movement)
• E3 12-month-old infants reacted differently
  (attentiveness) when they witnessed the stranger
  or the robot move autonomously or obey verbal
  commands
• Negative affect was rarely observed if not
  exposed to the stationary object before the
  moving object.

• Strengths
• Inanimate/animate through independent motion
• Consistency of motion and distance to infant
• Order of presentation of robot-stranger
  counterbalanced
• Limitations
• Differential expressions or reactions of the
  mothers
• Does not explore the effects of the other
  characteristics of the robot (e.g., mechanical
  noise)
• Previous temperament, attachment, or individual
  differences of infants