Tanya Behne
Biographic Data
| ID | 5758593 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tanya Behne |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tanya |
| FAMILY NAME | Behne |
| SIGNATURE | BEHNE T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Göttingen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7649-4949 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The cognitive underpinnings and early development of children's selective trust
Young children learn selectively from reliable over unreliable sources. However, the cognitive underpinnings of their selectivity (attentional biases or trait ascriptions) and its early ontogeny are unclear. Thus, across three studies (N = 139, monolingual German speakers, 67 female), selective-trust tasks were adapted to test both preschoolers (5-year-olds) and toddlers (24-month-olds), using eye-tracking and interactive measures. These data sho…
Young children and adults use reasoning by exclusion rather than attraction to novelty to disambiguate novel word meanings
Upon hearing a novel label, listeners tend to assume that it refers to a novel, rather than a familiar object. While this disambiguation or mutual exclusivity (ME) effect has been robustly shown across development, it is unclear what it involves. Do listeners use their pragmatic and lexical knowledge to exclude the familiar object and thus select the novel one? Or is the effect, at least in early childhood, simply based on an attraction to novelt…
Just teasing! - Infants' and toddlers' understanding of teasing interactions and its effect on social bonding
Maternal input and infants’ response to infant‐directed speech
Caregivers typically use an exaggerated speech register known as infant‐directed speech (IDS) in communication with infants. Infants prefer IDS over adult‐directed speech (ADS) and IDS is functionally relevant in infant‐directed communication. We examined interactions among maternal IDS quality, infants’ preference for IDS over ADS, and the functional relevance of IDS at 6 and 13 months. While 6‐month‐olds showed a preference for IDS over ADS, 13…
Commitment sharing as crucial step toward a developmentally plausible speech act theory
The role of trait reasoning in young children’s selective trust
In recent years, ample research has shown that preschoolers choose selectively who to learn from, preferring, for example, to learn novel words from a previously accurate over a previously inaccurate model. But this research has not yet resolved what cognitive foundations such selectivity builds upon. The present article reports 2 studies that investigate whether preschoolers' selective trust is based on global impression formation (halo effects)…
Young children create iconic gestures to inform others
Much is known about young children's use of deictic gestures such as pointing. Much less is known about their use of other types of communicative gestures, especially iconic or symbolic gestures. In particular, it is unknown whether children can create iconic gestures on the spot to inform others. Study 1 provided 27-month-olds with the opportunity to inform a novice how to perform a task. The majority of children created appropriate iconic gestu…
Infants communicate in order to be understood
Infants intentionally communicate with others from before their 1st birthday. But there is some question about how they understand the communicative process. Do they understand that for their request to work the recipient must both understand the request and be cooperatively disposed to fulfill it? On the basis of the study by Shwe and Markman (1997), we developed a new paradigm that tested whether and how 18-, 24-, and 30-month-old children repa…
Young children’s understanding of joint commitments
When adults make a joint commitment to act together, they feel an obligation to their partner. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether young children also understand joint commitments to act together. In the first study, when an adult orchestrated with the child a joint commitment to play a game together and then broke off from their joint activity, 3-year-olds (n = 24) reacted to the break significantly more often (e.g., by trying to re-e…
Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition
We propose that the crucial difference between human cognition and that of other species is the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representati…
Unwilling Versus Unable: Infants' Understanding of Intentional Action
Infants experienced a female adult handling them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age reacted with more impatience (e.g., reaching, looking away) when the adult was unwilling to give th…
Young children’s understanding of joint commitments
When adults make a joint commitment to act together, they feel an obligation to their partner. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether young children also understand joint commitments to act together. In the first study, when an adult orchestrated with the child a joint commitment to play a game together and then broke off from their joint activity, 3-year-olds (n = 24) reacted to the break significantly more often (e.g., by trying to re-e…
Unwilling Versus Unable: Infants' Understanding of Intentional Action
Infants experienced a female adult handling them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age reacted with more impatience (e.g., reaching, looking away) when the adult was unwilling to give th…
The role of trait reasoning in young children’s selective trust
In recent years, ample research has shown that preschoolers choose selectively who to learn from, preferring, for example, to learn novel words from a previously accurate over a previously inaccurate model. But this research has not yet resolved what cognitive foundations such selectivity builds upon. The present article reports 2 studies that investigate whether preschoolers' selective trust is based on global impression formation (halo effects)…
Infants communicate in order to be understood
Infants intentionally communicate with others from before their 1st birthday. But there is some question about how they understand the communicative process. Do they understand that for their request to work the recipient must both understand the request and be cooperatively disposed to fulfill it? On the basis of the study by Shwe and Markman (1997), we developed a new paradigm that tested whether and how 18-, 24-, and 30-month-old children repa…
Young children create iconic gestures to inform others
Much is known about young children's use of deictic gestures such as pointing. Much less is known about their use of other types of communicative gestures, especially iconic or symbolic gestures. In particular, it is unknown whether children can create iconic gestures on the spot to inform others. Study 1 provided 27-month-olds with the opportunity to inform a novice how to perform a task. The majority of children created appropriate iconic gestu…
Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition
We propose that the crucial difference between human cognition and that of other species is the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representati…
Unwilling Versus Unable: Infants' Understanding of Intentional Action
Infants experienced a female adult handling them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age reacted with more impatience (e.g., reaching, looking away) when the adult was unwilling to give th…
Young children’s understanding of joint commitments
When adults make a joint commitment to act together, they feel an obligation to their partner. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether young children also understand joint commitments to act together. In the first study, when an adult orchestrated with the child a joint commitment to play a game together and then broke off from their joint activity, 3-year-olds (n = 24) reacted to the break significantly more often (e.g., by trying to re-e…
Infants communicate in order to be understood
Infants intentionally communicate with others from before their 1st birthday. But there is some question about how they understand the communicative process. Do they understand that for their request to work the recipient must both understand the request and be cooperatively disposed to fulfill it? On the basis of the study by Shwe and Markman (1997), we developed a new paradigm that tested whether and how 18-, 24-, and 30-month-old children repa…
Young children create iconic gestures to inform others
Much is known about young children's use of deictic gestures such as pointing. Much less is known about their use of other types of communicative gestures, especially iconic or symbolic gestures. In particular, it is unknown whether children can create iconic gestures on the spot to inform others. Study 1 provided 27-month-olds with the opportunity to inform a novice how to perform a task. The majority of children created appropriate iconic gestu…
The role of trait reasoning in young children’s selective trust
In recent years, ample research has shown that preschoolers choose selectively who to learn from, preferring, for example, to learn novel words from a previously accurate over a previously inaccurate model. But this research has not yet resolved what cognitive foundations such selectivity builds upon. The present article reports 2 studies that investigate whether preschoolers' selective trust is based on global impression formation (halo effects)…
Commitment sharing as crucial step toward a developmentally plausible speech act theory
Maternal input and infants’ response to infant‐directed speech
Caregivers typically use an exaggerated speech register known as infant‐directed speech (IDS) in communication with infants. Infants prefer IDS over adult‐directed speech (ADS) and IDS is functionally relevant in infant‐directed communication. We examined interactions among maternal IDS quality, infants’ preference for IDS over ADS, and the functional relevance of IDS at 6 and 13 months. While 6‐month‐olds showed a preference for IDS over ADS, 13…
Just teasing! - Infants' and toddlers' understanding of teasing interactions and its effect on social bonding
The cognitive underpinnings and early development of children's selective trust
Young children learn selectively from reliable over unreliable sources. However, the cognitive underpinnings of their selectivity (attentional biases or trait ascriptions) and its early ontogeny are unclear. Thus, across three studies (N = 139, monolingual German speakers, 67 female), selective-trust tasks were adapted to test both preschoolers (5-year-olds) and toddlers (24-month-olds), using eye-tracking and interactive measures. These data sho…
Young children and adults use reasoning by exclusion rather than attraction to novelty to disambiguate novel word meanings
Upon hearing a novel label, listeners tend to assume that it refers to a novel, rather than a familiar object. While this disambiguation or mutual exclusivity (ME) effect has been robustly shown across development, it is unclear what it involves. Do listeners use their pragmatic and lexical knowledge to exclude the familiar object and thus select the novel one? Or is the effect, at least in early childhood, simply based on an attraction to novelt…
Psychology (11 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (10 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Cognition (5 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Language Development and Disorders (4 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works)