PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Animacy, Habituation, Proprioception
Document Summary
I argued that infants are born with innate domains that contain representations about people, as well as particular principles on how to interact with them. If that is true, then it follows that infants must have different domains that contain representations of physical objects. That infants have specific domains for interacting with people and objects should not be surprising. This evidence shows that infant discriminations of people and inanimate agents runs deeper and does not depend purely on superficial physical phenomena. They noted that although people and objects are similar in that both have physical properties (size and shape), the two classes are different because only people communicate, grow and reproduce, move independently, have feelings, intentions, and thoughts. Not only do people and objects have different properties, but they are perceived differently. When looking at people, we may initially notice their appearance and their behavior, but we tend to focus primarily on their mental states such as emotions and intentions.
