The Development of Body Structure Knowledge in Infancy

Ramesh S. Bhatt, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ashley Galati

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Although we know much about the development of face processing, we know considerably less about the development of body knowledge—despite bodies also being significant sources of social information. One set of studies indicated that body structure knowledge is poor during the 1st year of life and spawned a model that posits that, unlike the development of face knowledge, which benefits from innate propensities and dedicated learning mechanisms, the development of body knowledge relies on general learning mechanisms and develops slowly. In this article, we review studies on infants' knowledge about the structure of bodies and their processing of gender and emotion that paint a different picture. Although questions remain, a general social cognition system likely engenders similar trajectories of development of knowledge about faces and bodies, and may equip developing infants with the capacity to obtain socially critical information from many sources.
Original languageAmerican English
JournalChild Development Perspectives
Volume10
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • body structure of perception
  • development of body knowledge
  • social cognition

Disciplines

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology

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