Four studies investigated whether and when infants connect information about an actor's affect and perception to their action. Arguably, this may be a crucial way in which infants come to recognize the intentional behaviors of others. In Study 1 an actor grasped one of two objects in a situation where cues from the actor's gaze and expression could serve to determine which object would be grasped, specifically the actor first looked at and emoted positively about one object but not the other. Twelve-month-olds, but not 8-month-olds, recognized that the actor was likely to grasp the object which she had visually regarded with positive affect. Studies 2, 3, and 4 replicated the main finding from Study 1 with 12- and 14-month-olds and included several contrasting conditions and controls. These studies provide evidence that the ability to use information about an adult's direction of gaze and emotional expression to predict action is both present, and developing at the end of the first year of life. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract We propose Markov random fields (MRFs) as a probabilistic mathematical model for incorporating the internal states of other agents, both human and robotic, into robot decision making. By using estimates of Theory of Mind (ToM), the “mental ” states of other agents can be incorporated into decision making through statistical inference, allowing robots to balance their own goals and internal objectives with those of other collaborating agents. The MRF model is wellsuited to domains in which the joint probability over latent (action) and observed (perceived) variables can be factored into pairwise interactions between these variables. Specifically, these interactions occur through functions that evaluate “local evidence ” between an observed and latent variable and “compatibility ” between a pair of latent variables. We will model some experimental findings from ToM research and show how the MRF model can be applied to a social robotics task. We will also describe how to use belief propagation on a multi-robot MRF as a novel approach to

Young infants are sensitive to self-directed social actions, but do they appreciate the intentional, target-directed nature of such behaviors? We addressed this question by investigating infants ’ understanding of social gaze in third-party interactions. Tenmonth-old infants discriminated between two people in mutual versus averted gaze, and expected a person to look at her social partner during conversation. In contrast, 9-monthold infants showed neither ability, even when provided with information that highlighted the gazer’s social goals. These results indicate considerable improvement in infants’ abilities to analyze the social gaze of others towards the end of their first year, which may relate to their appreciation of gaze as both a social and goal-directed action. Running head: INFANTS ’ DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL GAZE 3 Infants ’ Developing Understanding of Social Gaze Eye gaze is a central element of human social interaction that can reflect a person's feelings, her attitudes towards a social partner, and her goals for their interaction (Kleinke, 1986). Within an interaction, social partners attend to each other’s gaze and use gaze to regulate both the immediate sequence of their exchange (Kendon, 1967) and

Young infants are sensitive to self-directed social actions, but do they appreciate the intentional, target-directed nature of such behaviors? The authors addressed this question by investigating infants ’ understanding of social gaze in third-party interactions (N = 104). Ten-month-old infants discriminated between 2 people in mutual versus averted gaze, and expected a person to look at her social partner during conversation. In contrast, 9-month-old infants showed neither ability, even when provided with information that highlighted the gazer’s social goals. These results indicate considerable improvement in infants ’ abilities to analyze the social gaze of others toward the end of their 1st year, which may relate to their appreciation of gaze as both a social and goal-directed action. We are grateful to the infants and families who participated. This research was funded by NSF GRF DGE-0644491 to J.S.B.