Gaze-Following Its Development and Significance

What does a child?s ability to look where another is looking tell us about his or her early cognitive development? What does this ability?or lack thereof?tell us about a child?s language development, understanding of other?s intentions, and the emergence of autism? This volume assembles several years of research on the processing of gaze information and its relationship to early social-cognitive development in infants spanning many age groups. Gaze-Following examines how humans and non-human primates use another individual?s direction of gaze to learn about the world around them.

The chapters throughout this volume address development in areas including joint attention, early non-verbal social interactions, language development, and theory of mind understanding. Offering novel insights regarding the significance of gaze-following, the editors present research from a neurological and a behavioral perspective, and compare children with and without pervasive developmental disorders.

Scholars in the areas of cognitive development specifically, and developmental science more broadly, as well as clinical psychologists will be interested in the intriguing research presented in this volume.

Contents:J. Flavell, Foreword. Preface. M.H. Johnson, T. Farroni, The Neurodevelopmental Origins of Eye Gaze Perception. A.V. Van Hecke, P. Mundy, Neural Systems and the Development of Gaze Following and Related Joint Attention Skills. A.C. MacPherson, C. Moore,Attentional Control by Gaze Cues in Infancy. B. D’Entremont, A. Yazbeck, A. Morgan, S. MacAulay, Early Gaze-Following and the Understanding of Others. R. Flom, A.D. Pick,Increasing Specificity and the Development of Joint Visual Attention. E.M. Blass, J. Lumeng, N. Patil,Influence of Mutual Gaze on Human Infant Affect. D.L. Mumme, E.W. Bushnell, J.A. DiCorcia, L.A. Lariviere, Infants’ Use of Gaze Cues to Interpret Others’ Actions and Emotional Reactions. M.A. Sabbagh, A.M.E. Henderson, D.A. Baldwin, What Infants’ Understanding of Referential Intentions Tells Us About the Neurocognitive Bases of Early Word Learning. S.A. Graham, E.S. Nilsen, S.L. Nayer,Following the Intentional Eye: The Role of Gaze Cues in Early Word Learning. A.M. Meltzoff, R. Brooks,Eyes Wide Shut: The Importance of Eyes in Infant Gaze-Following and Understanding Other Minds. M. Eskritt, K. Lee, Preschoolers’ Use of Eye-Gaze for "Mind Reading". D. Poulin-Dubois, T.L. Demke, K.M. Olineck, The Inquisitive Eye: Infants’ Implicit Understanding That Looking Leads to Knowing. B.M. Hood, C.N. Macrae, Look Into My Eyes: The Effect of Direct Gaze on Face Processing in Children and Adults. S. Itakura, L. Das,A. Farshid, Gaze Processing in Nonhuman Primates.