The emergence of eye contact as an intersubjective signal in an infant gorilla: implications for models of early social cognition

• Autores: Juan Carlos Gómez
• Localización: Acción psicológica, ISSN 1578-908X, Vol. 7, Nº. 2, 2010 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Nuevos desarrollos en la investigación de la comunicación temprana), págs. 35-43
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5944/ap.7.2.213
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El surgimiento del contacto ocular como señal intersubjetiva en una cría de gorila: implicaciones para los modelos de cognición social temprana
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This paper argues against both lean and rich interpretations of early social cognition in infants and apes using as an illustration the results of a longitudinal study comparing the emergence of joint attention and tool use patterns in an infant gorilla. In contrast with tool use (where well-formed manipulations resulted in near perfect rates of reward obtention) the emergence of well-formed acts of communication with eye contact not only had no effect upon the rewards obtained, but increased the proportion of �explicit denials� of requests. It is argued that this suggests eye contact is learned and used as an intersubjective signal of communicative intentionality and not through simple associative mechanisms of reward contingency detection. However, it is also argued that rich interpretations of early social cognition are not needed to explain the development of communicative and intersubjective intentions.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Bard, K. A. (1990). “Social tool use” by free-ranging orangutans: a piagetian and developmental per- spective on the manipulation of an animate...
  • Bretherton, I., McNew, S., & Beeghly-Smith, M. (1981). Early person knowledge as expressed in gestural and verbal communication: when...
  • Corkum, V., & Moore, C. (1998). The origins of joint visual attention in infants. Developmental Psychology, 34(1), 28-38.
  • Fritz, J., & Fritz, P. (1985). The hand-rearing unit: management decisions that may affect chimpanzee development. In C. E. Graham &...
  • Gómez, J. C. (1990). The emergence of intentional communication as a problem-solving strategy in the gorilla. In S. T. Parker & K. R....
  • Gómez, J. C. (1991). Visual behavior as a window for reading the minds of others in primates. In A. Whiten (Ed.), Natural Theories of Mind:...
  • Gómez, J. C. (1992). El desarrollo de la comunicación intencional en el gorila. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
  • Gómez, J. C. (1994). Mutual awareness in primate communication: a Gricean approach. In S. Parker, M. Boccia & R. Mitchell (Eds.), Self-recognition...
  • Gómez, J. C. (1994). Shared attention in ontogeny and phylogeny: SAM, TOM, Grice, and the great apes. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current...
  • Gómez, J. C. (1996). Ostensive behavior in the great apes: the role of eye contact. In A. Russon, S. Parker & K. Bard (Eds.), Reaching...
  • Gómez, J. C. (1998). Do concepts of intersubjectivity apply to non-human primates? In S. Braten (Ed.), Intersubjective communication and emotion...
  • Gómez, J. C. (2004). Apes, monkeys, children and the growth of mind. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
  • Gómez, J. C. (2005). Species comparative studies and cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(3), 91-158.
  • Gómez, J. C. (2007). Pointing Behaviors in Apes and Human Infants: A BalancedI Interpretation. Child Development, 78, 729-734.
  • Gómez, J. C. (2008). The Evolution Of Pretence: From Intentional Availability To Intentional Non-Existence. Mind and Language, 23(5), 586–606.
  • Gómez, J. C. (2009). Embodying meaning: Insights from primates, autism, and Brentano. Neural Networks, 22(2), 190-196.
  • Gómez, J. C., Sarriá, E., & Tamarit, J. (1993). The comparative study of early communication and theories of mind: ontogeny, phylogeny...
  • Hubley, P., & Trevarthen, C. (1979). Sharing a task in infancy. In I. C. Uzgiris (Ed.), Social Interaction and Communication during Infancy...
  • Moore, C. (2008). The Development of Gaze Following. Child Development Perspectives, 2(2), 66-70.
  • Phillips, W., Gómez, J. C., Baron-Cohen, S., Laá, M. V., & Rivière, A. (1995). Treating people as objects, agents or “subjects”: How young...
  • Povinelli, D. J., & Eddy, T. J. (1996). What young chimpanzees know about seeing. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,...
  • Sarriá, E., & Rivière, A. (1991). Desarrollo cognitivo y comunicación intencional preverbal: Un estudio longitudinal multivariado. Estudios...
  • Shatz, M. (1983). Communication. In J. H. Flavell & E. M. Markman (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology. (Fourth Edition). Vol. 3. Cognitive...
  • Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: communication and cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
  • Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., & Liszkowski, U. (2007). A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, 78(3), 705-722.