Abstract

From early in life, infants pay attention to the people around them and the actions they perform. They enjoy interacting with others and – as they grow older – take pleasure in cooperating with adults in a playful manner. But how do infants acquire knowledge about their social environment? How do they develop the ability to understand actions they observe in others? And which mechanisms play a role in toddlers’ developing ability to act jointly with others? In this talk, I will present a series of behavioral and neurophysiological experiments which examine the emergence of social understanding and cooperation in early childhood.