Developmental origin of the animate-inanimate distinction

The authors examine recent theoretical perspectives of the development of t he animate-inanimate distinction in infancy. From these theoretical views e merge 7 characteristic properties, each related to physical or psychologica l causality, that distinguish animates from inanimates. The literature is r eviewed for evidence of infants' ability to perceive and understand each of these properties. Infants associate some animate properties with people by 6 months, but they do not associate the appropriate properties to the broa d category of animates and inanimates until at least the middle of the 2nd year. The authors offer a theoretical proposal whereby infants acquire know ledge about the properties of different object kinds through a sensitive pe rceptual system and a domain general associative learning mechanism that ex tracts correlations among dynamic and static features.