Does Pointing Comprehension Disturb Controlling Action? :Evidence from 2-year-old children

Abstract

This study investigated whether 2-year-old children failed to control actions when they were given wrong social cues by another person in a searching task. In a control session, children observed an experimenter hid a toy in one of three cups. Then they were allowed to search a toy. In a test session, children observed a toy was hidden in one of three cups. Then one experimenter asked the other experimenter to point the cup in which a toy was hidden. After she pointed the wrong cup in which there was no toy; children were allowed to search a toy. Result indicated that children were more likely to fail to search a toy in the test session than in the control session. This suggested that children made a strong representation when they were given wrong social cues by another person and could not inhibit the representation when they search a toy. This is the first study which suggested that children social cognition disturb their controlling actions