Extrapolation and direct matching mediate anticipation in infancy

• Infants and adults anticipatory gaze shifts were measured.
• Stimuli depicted self-propelled objects and human goal directed actions.
• Six-month-olds anticipate self-propelled balls but not human actions.
• Direct matching mediates the ability to anticipate human actions.
• Extrapolation mediates the ability to anticipate self-propelled objects.

Why are infants able to anticipate occlusion events and other people's actions but not the movement of self-propelled objects? This study investigated infant and adult anticipatory gaze shifts during observation of self-propelled objects and human goal-directed actions. Six-month-old infants anticipated self-propelled balls but not human actions. This demonstrates that different processes mediate the ability to anticipate human actions (direct matching) versus self-propelled objects (extrapolation).