The development of mentalistic gaze understanding

Citation

Doherty M (2006) The development of mentalistic gaze understanding. Infant and Child Development, 15 (2), pp. 179-186. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.434

Abstract
Very young infants are sensitive to and follow other people’s gaze. By 18 months old children, like chimpanzees, apparently represent the spatial relationship between viewer and object viewed: they can follow eye-direction alone, and react appropriately if the other’s gaze is blocked by occluding barriers. This paper assesses when children represent this relationship as psychological in nature. Studies examining sensitivity to gaze, gaze following, and explicit judgement of gaze direction are reviewed. The evidence suggests that neither infants nor chimpanzees represent gaze as psychological. It is concluded that mentalistic gaze understanding develops from the age of 3 years.

Keywords
Gaze understanding; gaze following; Visual perception in infants; Infant psychology; Gaze

Journal
Infant and Child Development: Volume 15, Issue 2