@article{AdamReitenbachPapenmeieretal.2016,
  author    = {Adam, Maurits and Reitenbach, Ivanina and Papenmeier, Frank and Gredeb{\"a}ck, Gustaf and Elsner, Claudia and Elsner, Birgit},
  title     = {actions, but not for mechanical claws},
  series = {Meteoritics \& planetary science : journal of the Meteoritical Society},
  volume    = {44},
  journal   = {Meteoritics \& planetary science : journal of the Meteoritical Society},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0163-6383},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.05.001},
  pages     = {29 -- 37},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Previous research indicates that infants' prediction of the goals of observed actions is influenced by own experience with the type of agent performing the action (i.e., human hand vs. non-human agent) as well as by action-relevant features of goal objects (e.g., object size). The present study investigated the combined effects of these factors on 12-month-olds' action prediction. Infants' (N = 49) goal-directed gaze shifts were recorded as they observed 14 trials in which either a human hand or a mechanical claw reached for a small goal area (low-saliency goal) or a large goal area (high-saliency goal). Only infants who had observed the human hand reaching for a high-saliency goal fixated the goal object ahead of time, and they rapidly learned to predict the action goal across trials. By contrast, infants in all other conditions did not track the observed action in a predictive manner, and their gaze shifts to the action goal did not change systematically across trials. Thus, high-saliency goals seem to boost infants' predictive gaze shifts during the observation of human manual actions, but not of actions performed by a mechanical device. This supports the assumption that infants' action predictions are based on interactive effects of action-relevant object features (e.g., size) and own action experience.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ElsnerAdam2021,
  author    = {Elsner, Birgit and Adam, Maurits},
  title     = {Infants' goal prediction for simple action events},
  series = {Topics in cognitive science / Cognitive Science Society},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Topics in cognitive science / Cognitive Science Society},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Oxford},
  issn      = {1756-8765},
  doi       = {10.1111/tops.12494},
  pages     = {45 -- 62},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Looking times and gaze behavior indicate that infants can predict the goal state of an observed simple action event (e.g., object-directed grasping) already in the first year of life. The present paper mainly focuses on infants' predictive gaze-shifts toward the goal of an ongoing action. For this, infants need to generate a forward model of the to-be-obtained goal state and to disengage their gaze from the moving agent at a time when information about the action event is still incomplete. By about 6 months of age, infants show goal-predictive gaze-shifts, but mainly for familiar actions that they can perform themselves (e.g., grasping) and for familiar agents (e.g., a human hand). Therefore, some theoretical models have highlighted close relations between infants' ability for action-goal prediction and their motor development and/or emerging action experience. Recent research indicates that infants can also predict action goals of familiar simple actions performed by non-human agents (e.g., object-directed grasping by a mechanical claw) when these agents display agency cues, such as self-propelled movement, equifinality of goal approach, or production of a salient action effect. This paper provides a review on relevant findings and theoretical models, and proposes that the impacts of action experience and of agency cues can be explained from an action-event perspective. In particular, infants' goal-predictive gaze-shifts are seen as resulting from an interplay between bottom-up processing of perceptual information and top-down influences exerted by event schemata that store information about previously executed or observed actions.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AdamElsner2018,
  author    = {Adam, Maurits and Elsner, Birgit},
  title     = {Action effects foster 11-month-olds' prediction of action goals for a non-human agent},
  series = {Infant behavior \& development : an international and interdisciplinary journal},
  volume    = {53},
  journal   = {Infant behavior \& development : an international and interdisciplinary journal},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0163-6383},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.09.002},
  pages     = {49 -- 55},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Action effects have been stated to be important for infants' processing of goal-directed actions. In this study, 11-month-olds showed equally fast predictive gaze shifts to a claw's action goal when the grasping action was presented either with three agency cues (self-propelled movement, equifinality of goal achievement and a salient action effect) or with only a salient action effect, but infants showed tracking gaze when the claw showed only self-propelled movement and equifinality of goal achievement. The results suggest that action effects, compared to purely kinematic cues, seem to be especially important for infants' online processing of goal-directed actions.},
  language  = {en}
}