Introduction
Gaze following is one of the fundamental child behaviour used to not only determine their physical development but also the cognitive growth of the child. This paper seeks to focus on gaze following and related social understanding of this concept. It seeks to determine the meaning of various behaviours and interpretations such as lean and rich interpretations in psychology. In addition, it will focus on the blind-folding and eye closure experiment for the gaze following to determine when in facts follows objects on sight. The discussion will be extended to the determination of how gaze following can enable infants to learn language. As such, the final focus will help to identify how this concept of gaze following may help us to understand child development.
The Differentiation between Lean and Rich Concepts
There is a distinct differentiation between the concepts of rich and lean in relation to gaze following. These two concepts have been the centre of controversy regarding the perspective from which Gaze Following should be interpreted. Rich interpretation of gaze following advances the fact that when a follower responds and follows the gaze of the person, who is looking; his or her following is a representation of the intentions expressed by the gazer. As such, this implies that the gaze follower and the gazer are essentially triggered by a stimulus for which they have to respond. This interpretation is drawn and based on the fact that when a child is at the age of 2 years, they have the capability to monitor the sight patterns of adults and hence determine their emotions. This interpretation also refers to the findings of Brooks and Meltzoff which indicated that children can use visual obstructions inherent to gaze following in order to understand the intentions of adults (960).
On the other hand, lean interpretation argues that gaze following is as a result of a social learning and perceptive behaviour inherent to the movement of the adults head. It therefore advances the opinion that gaze following does not represent the intent of the gazer. Instead, it is just a physical response to the gazer’s movement of the head.
Gaze Following Experiment by Brooks and Meltzoff
In their experiment, the two authors sought to determine the response of infants when an adult’s gaze is obstructed. In other words, it focused on the adjustments which infants make when the path of the adults gaze is changed or blocked by a barrier. It was noted that from the age of fourteen and eighteen months, infants were able to change their perspective and the following behaviour once the gaze was directed to an object placed behind a barrier that stood in the line of the child’s sight. As an implication, therefore, it means that children who are beyond the age of fourteen have the capability to understand the intention of a gaze. Evidently, at this age, the infants go beyond the pursuit to just follow the gaze and the head of the adults.
Gaze Following and Language
Brooks and Meltzoff also discussed the relationship between gaze following and the language development in children (965). In this case, they found that gaze following was highly correlated to language development after a year. Indeed, they argued that the vocalization which accompanies the adults’ gazes helped the infants to relate the gaze and the speech. These findings are of critical importance because it implies that parents can develop a child’s oral capabilities using the gaze following. In this case, they have to ensure that each gaze is accompanied by a related speech. In the long term, the child will learn to relate the objects and the vocalizations. This can play a fundamental role in ensuring that infants learn the names of objects and animals.
Gaze Following and Our Understanding of Development
Gaze following informs our understanding about development in various ways especially in terms of how infants learn to socialize with their parents and those around them. Importantly, gaze following expands our knowledge in regard to how children learn to understand other people’s mind. Based on the understanding that an infant can follow a gaze and its relationship to language, we understand that children development is based on his or her surroundings. By learning how to respond to gazes, the child develops vocalization and hence learns how to talk. As such, it implies that the process of development starts from the point of responding to the surrounding stimuli. With this understanding, therefore, it is evident that if a disability obstructs the process of gaze following cognitive change of sight perspective and development of language could be delayed significantly. This means that the infant will take prolonged period to talk and to relate objects with speech (Flom 87). On the other hand, normal development helps to ensure that the abruption of speech and language is fast and efficient.
Conclusion
It is evident that lean and rich are two controversial aspects that present different perspectives of interpreting gaze following. Lean interpretation purports that infants follow gazes based on monitoring the movement of the adult’s head. On the other hand, rich interpretation argues that gaze following is connected to the intention of the gazer. In addition, this paper noted that gaze following has a correlation with language development and cognitive growth.
Works Cited
Flom, Ross. Gaze-following: Its Development and Significance. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Print.
Meltzoff, Andrew, and Rechelle Brooks. "Advanced Search Include Citations The Importance of Eyes: How Infants Interpret Adult Looking Behavior." Developmental Psychology 38.6 (2002): 958-66. Print.
