New methodological approaches to identify the relation of perception and action during infancy

The present study investigated the relation of action perception and action production in early childhood by means of innovative eye tracking technology. Findings demonstrate that self-performed actions directly influence the subsequent perception of actions performed by others. Nine-and eleven-month-olds watched the area of an object-related action in a video longer when this action was performed with the object infants' had played with before (Experiment 1). Reciprocally, an influence of perceived actions on self-performed actions was demonstrated. Infants of both age groups focused longer on the area of an object being part of an action than on the area of an object being ignored. Furthermore, the infants chose the action object in their subsequent action production and played longer with it (Experiment 2). These findings support the supposed relation of action perception and action production during the first year of life.