The next talk in the CDC Seminar series will be given by: Szilvia Bíró, University of Leiden Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 5 PM Location: Cognitive Development Center at CEU, Hattyú u. 14, 3rd floor PLEASE NOTE: Our seminar room has a limited capacity. Please try to arrive early to ensure you get a seat! The talk will begin promptly at 5. The primacy of means selection over outcome selection information in infants' goal attribution Abstract: To interpret an observed action as goal-directed one can make use of two types of information in a given situation. One type of information consists of the observation that, to achieve the goal, the actor adjusts the action to the situational constraints ("means selection"). The other type of information is the availability of alternative outcomes and the expression of a preference for a particular outcome by the actor's action ("outcome selection"). I will talk about three studies in which we investigated the relationship between the two types of information in infants' goal attribution. The first study showed that ambiguous means selection information prevents infants from relying on unambiguous outcome selection information to interpret an action as goal-directed. The second study demonstrated that infants can transfer their goal-directed action interpretation from a situation that contains only means selection information to a situation in which outcome selection information becomes available. The third study indicated that infants' anticipatory looking toward the outcome of an action is influenced by the ambiguity of means selection information. Together, these studies suggest that means selection information takes primacy over outcome selection information in infants' interpretation of actions. Cognitive Science events at CEU: http://cognitivescience.ceu.hu/events _______________________________________________ Subscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-subscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu Unsubscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-unsubscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu