Early action perception and Theory of Mind: From an understanding of goal-directed action to a mentalistic understanding of human action

Research in developmental psychology is focusing increasingly on the impact of infants' early action understanding and control on their later social-cognitive development. One currently debated question regards the extent to which infants early understanding of actions as goal-directed may constitute a precursor ability to a later developing Theory of Mind. In this article, we differentiate between a non-mentalistic (based on structural action analysis) and a mentalistic (based on mental concepts) understanding of human action. We hypothesize that infants' early non-mentalistic understanding of human action constitutes an important precursor ability to a later mentalistic interpretation of action by attributing mental states such as intentions. We review recent longitudinal evidence in support of the proposed continuity in social-cognitive development as far as action understanding is concerned.