Infancy_2024

Infants may be capable of Level 1 spatial perspective-taking. If cognitive load could be made sufficiently small, it may turn out that infants can take Level 2 spatial perspectives earlier than has been assumed. Eye-tracking data were collected from infants aged 4–14 month with a cross-sectional study (N=61, 26 girls) and a longitudinal study (N=15, 6 girls) using a task that triggered spontaneous perspective operations. Significantly more correct responses were detected at 180-degree rotation angle in 4-6-month-old of the longitudinal study. At 180° in 9-10-month group in the cross-sectional study, frequency of correct responses marginally significant. Both of them subsequently disappeared. Although more research is required to confirm these results, they suggest that even infants under one year are not helpless in taking spatial perspectives.