Infants and toddlers at play: Looking for meaning

The world is an ever-changing place. Objects are always moving, appearing and disappearing, and changing how they look. Very young children are being constantly confronted with the challenge of understanding the world around them as it changes from minute to minute, day to day.Dee Smith and Jeanne Goldhaber both teach early childhood courses in the Department of Human Development Studies at the University of Vermont.     

Infants and toddlers leverage their understanding of action goals to evaluate agents who help others

Why do infants and toddlers prefer helpers? Four experiments (conducted from 2019–2022; n = 136, 66% White, 15% Asian, 4% Black, 2% Hispanic/Latino, 13% multiracial, majority USA) investigated whether infants and toddlers favor agents whose actions allow others to achieve their goals. In the key experiment, 8-month-old infants and 15-month-old toddlers viewed a protagonist who tried and failed to open a box that contained a toy while two other agents (helpers) observed; then the toys were exchanged and the helpers opened different boxes. Infants and toddlers differently evaluated the two helpers, consistent with their developing means-end understanding. Together, the present four experiments connect infants' and toddlers' evaluations of helping to their understanding of goal-directed behavior.