12-Month-Old Infants Represent Probable Endings of Motion Events

This experiment investigated 12-month-old infants’ ability to link an event’s beginning to its probable ending. Following Csibra, Biro, Koos, and Gergely (2003). infants were habituated to a simple chasing event involving animated balls, and at test saw 2 possible endings: either 1 ball caught the other or failed to do so. Two controls were added to the previous work. First. the total amount of motion was controlled in the test endings: second, the endings were paired with a nonchasing beginning to ensure that behavior at test reflected representation of the event beginning itself. The results replicated Csibra et al.’s finding that infants look longer at the noncatching ending following the chasing beginning; moreover, infants showed no preference for either ending following the no-chasing beginning. This study supports the claim that infants can calculate the rational ending of a goal-directed motion event.