Did You Mean to Do That? Infants Use Emotional Communication to Infer and Re-Enact Others’ Intentions

This study examined whether the manipulation of observed emotional communication (neutral or frustration) impacts 18-month-old infants’ imitation of a social partner’s intended actions. Infants imitated significantly more intended actions in the frustration condition than in the neutral condition, suggesting that emotion plays a role in disambiguating others’ intentions.