July 31, 2025

Social Connectedness Without Eye Contact: 18- But Not 9-Month-Olds Use Proximal Touch to Infer Third-Party Joint Attention During Observational Learning

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Experimental study shows that 18-month-olds enhance object memory using social cues, indicating joint attention mechanisms evolve with age.

Eighteen-month-olds demonstrate improved object memory through both eye contact and proximal touch cues.
Nine-month-olds only show enhanced memory when eye contact is present, lacking reliance on touch alone.
The study employed an object encoding task with varied social cues in video presentations to assess memory.
Findings suggest that joint attention evolves, allowing older infants to utilize diverse cues for social learning.

Thiele et al. (2025) studied this question.

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Experimental study shows that 18-month-olds enhance object memory using social cues, indicating joint attention mechanisms evolve with age.