Perceptual-cue-based mechanisms for recognizing social agents and their roles in social interactions

Thomas proposes the existence of core knowledge that supports an innate, or early developing, intuitive theory, where social relationships are understood in reference to three models: communal sharing, authority ranking, and equality matching. We consider possible precursor-representations that could support infants’ discovery of relationships in the social world and how these representations relate to the basic models discussed by Thomas.