Infant pointing is predictive of later language development, but little is known about factors enhancing the development of pointing. The current study investigated two possible social learning mechanisms in the development of pointing. Given that infants observe their caregivers' pointing gestures from early on, one possibility is learning via imitation. A second possibility is that caregivers' contingent reactions to infant communication promote communicative exchange, including pointing. To test which of these behaviours influences infants' pointing frequency, we manipulated parents' pointing frequency and their responsive behaviour via instructions in a cross‐sectional 2 × 3 design. We randomly assigned 12‐months‐old infants (N = 131, 65 females) and one of their parents to six different experimental groups. Participants were predominantly central Europeans from middle to high socioeconomic backgrounds. Data were collected with an online remote adaption of the decorated‐room paradigm. Parents successfully adapted their behaviours to the instructions. Parents' increased responsiveness, but not their increased pointing in general, significantly enhanced infants' pointing frequency (d = 0.36). Regression results further revealed that parents' responsive pointing positively predicted infants' pointing frequency. Findings question direct imitation accounts of pointing and identify responsive social interactions, including responsive pointing, as factors enhancing the occurrence of pointing in infancy.Highlights Imitation and responsive social interaction are possible social learning mechanisms in the development of pointing. Experimental manipulation of parental behaviours reveals that infant pointing increases when parents are particularly responsive, but not when parents point a lot in general. Parents' responsiveness through pointing gestures may be especially suited to enhance infants' pointing frequencies.

中文翻译：

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婴儿根据实验操纵的父母反应调整他们的指点频率，而不是根据父母指点


婴儿指尖可预测以后的语言发育，但对促进指尖发育的因素知之甚少。目前的研究调查了指向发展中的两种可能的社会学习机制。鉴于婴儿从小就观察他们的照顾者的指点手势，一种可能性是通过模仿来学习。第二种可能性是照顾者对婴儿交流的偶然反应促进了交流，包括指指点。为了测试哪些行为会影响婴儿的指尿频率，我们通过横断面 2 × 3 设计的指令操纵了父母的指尿频率和他们的反应行为。我们将 12 个月大的婴儿 （N = 131,65 名女性） 和他们的父母之一随机分配到 6 个不同的实验组。参与者主要是来自中高级社会经济背景的中欧人。数据是通过装饰房间范式的在线远程改编收集的。父母成功地使他们的行为适应了这些指示。父母的反应性增加，但总体上没有增加的指向性，显着提高了婴儿的指向频率 （d = 0.36）。回归结果进一步显示，父母的反应性指向正向预测婴儿的指向频率。研究结果质疑直接模仿指指点的描述，并确定反应性社交互动（包括反应性指指点）是增强婴儿期指指发生的因素。亮点 模仿和反应性社交互动是指向发展中可能的社会学习机制。 对父母行为的实验性操纵表明，当父母特别敏感时，婴儿指指会增加，但当父母通常指指很多时则不会。父母通过指向手势的反应可能特别适合提高婴儿的指向频率。