Failure to distinguish between people and things in early infancy

Whether or not babies understand the differences between people and things has been deemed crucial to psychological views of early development. However, only two studies have addressed this question empirically (Brazelton et al ., 1974; Frye et al ., 1983), neither of which reported statistically significant differences between the behaviours manifested by babies with a person and with a thing. Nevertheless, a number of psychologists assume in their theorizing that humans are born able to distinguish people from things (e.g. Trevarthen, 1974; Bruner, 1975). In this paper I describe a replication of the study reported by Brazelton et al . Eight 10‐week‐olds were filmed for two minutes en face with a graspable ball and 'chatting' with their mothers. Nine behaviours were coded. Results showed that babies opened their mouths and lowered their eyebrows significantly more and turned away significantly less with their mothers than with the ball. Further analysis showed that babies acted 'socially' in both conditions, suggesting that a 'sociable mood' may persist despite appropriate changes in infants' stimulus conditions. It is concluded that the ways in which infants experience their worlds cannot be generated by an inborn capacity to distinguish between people and things.