Masato Yamamoto

The purpose of this study was to clarify the developmental process of infantile communicative comprehension in a "give and take" task. Three conditions were set up in the experiment, and 60 infants of three age groups were examined. The results were as follows ; (1) "taking" was found in all groups, but "giving" was not found in the 6 months old, and (2) no difference was found in the three condit ions in the reactions of the 6 months old, but on the other hand some differences were found in the 10 and 14 months. These findings suggested that 6 month-old infants could not c omprehend the meaning of communicative behavior, as the comprehension is presumed to begin at around 10 months.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the developmental process of joint visual attention and response to pointing in infants from 3 to 8 months old. In experiment I, target object was not set up, and in experiment II, target object was set up in the direction of experimenter's regard or pointing. The results obtained from experiment I were as follows ; (1) joint visual attention was found in 3 months, and (2) regarding the direction of pointing was hardly found in all months. The results obtained from experiment II were different from those of experiment I ; (1) regarding the direction of pointing was found in 3 months, while (2) regarding the pointing of finger was not found. These results indicated that joint visual attention was brought about from 3 months, and responses to pointing was closely related to existence of target object.