émergence de la distinction personne-objet.

Investigated the emergence of the cognitive ability to distinguish persons and objects during the first few months of life. Thirty-eight infants took part in 2 experimental sessions, the first conducted at the age of 4 wks, the second at 10 wks. Each session consisted of 6 episodes in which the infant's mother, a stranger and a doll were presented under 2 conditions: "active" or "inactive." Infants' facial expressions, visual fixations and vocalizations were analyzed. Several differences were observed in infants behaviours towards the persons and the doll: the babies smiled more at their mother and at the stranger and vocalized more to people than to the doll. However, these differences were closely related to the activity of the stimuli presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)