Social perception: How do 6-month-old infants look at pointing gestures?

• Six-month-old infants can follow other's pointing gesture under certain conditions: when a human hand is used to point and presented cues point into the same direction.

The study explored 6-month-old infants’ ability to follow a pointing gesture in a dynamic social context. The infants were presented with a video of a model pointing to one of two toys. The pointing gesture was performed either normally (with arm and hand pointing at the same direction), with a stick, or the model's arm and hand pointing in different directions (at different toys). The results indicate that infants at this age reliably followed pointing performed normally.