Emergence of the distinction between a person and an object

The purpose of this study was to investigate the emergence of the cognitive ability to distinguish persons and objects during the first few months of life. Thirty-eight infants took part in two experimental sessions, the firs t conducted at the age of 4 weeks, the second at 10 weeks. Each session con sisted of six episodes in which the infant's mother, a stranger and a doll were presented under two conditions: "active" or "inactive." Infants' facia l expressions, visual fixations and vocalizations were analyzed. Several di fferences were observed in infants behaviours towards the persons and the d oll: the babies smiled more at their mother and at the stranger and vocaliz ed more to people than to the doll. However, these differences were closely related to the activity of the stimuli presented.