The Description of the Research Question, Method and Findings
Beier and Spelke (2012) studied whether infants appreciate the intentional, target-directed nature of social actions through the application of social gaze in third party interactions. The main research question in this study is whether the infants appreciate the intentional, target directed nature of social actions through the application of social gaze in third party interactions. According to Beier and Spelke (2012), studies indicate that infants are receptive to self-directed shared activities. Beier and Spelke (2012) utilized similar methods in testing different influencing variables including the age, provision of additional information and the variation of expectations.
However, the procedures have to be wide-ranging depending on the variable that was tested. The investigation involved a sample of 104 infants below the age of ten months. The findings indicated that ten-month-old infants are capable of identifying self-directed social actions. However, infants below ten months are incapable of identifying self-directed social actions even if provided with information that emphasized the social objectives of the gazer. The implication of the findings is that infants’ abilities to scrutinize the self-directed social actions improve gradually, particularly towards the end of twelve months. The development is associated with their positive reception of gaze as both goal-directed and collective response.
The Implication of the Research Findings, Methods and Theories
Even though the findings indicate similar results with previous studies, the experimental procedures applied cannot utterly ascertain the outcomes. In other words, the researchers need to conduct their experiments in diverse environments as well as involve other behavior related variables in order to make similar conclusions. Essentially, the implication is that the methods applied in testing the self-directed social actions in this study can be used to test the same behaviors using a different variable and similar results is obtained. However, Beier and Spelke (2012) focused their testing procedures, which produced similar results as the previous studies. In addition, the sample size used in the study cannot inform the conclusion that is applicable in practice. The sample size was also based on various assumptions, which discriminated the study response of certain age groups. As such, further studies need to be conducted using large and varied sample and variables in order to come up with a practicable conclusion.
Besides reliability and predictability weaknesses in the methodology, the study is also not based on any theoretical framework. Even though various development theories tend to explain the behavioral changes observed, the study is not primarily based on any of the theoretical framework. In essence, the study tended to test the previous study results that infants are receptive to self-directed shared activities. In fact, the study by Beier and Spelke (2012) is building on this previous knowledge and not based on any development theories. The objective is to fill the existing knowledge gap.
However, the findings of the study remain critical in advancing the social behavior of children. As indicated, the findings of the study by Beier and Spelke (2012) are aimed at filling the critical knowledge gap existing in the explanation of how children respond to self-driven social actions. The tested variables were carefully chosen to examine the changes in behavior of self-driven social actions focusing on intentional and target-directed nature of such behaviors. While the results are positively applied, further research need to be conducted through the use of larger samples and testing several behavior responses in diverse environments.
Reference
Beier, J. S., & Spelke, E. S. (2012). Infants’ developing understanding of social gaze. Child development, 83(2), 486-496.