September 20, 2025Open Access

Infants Track the Social Targets of Their Parents’ Gaze

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Observational study shows infants anticipate their parents’ gaze toward a puppet, suggesting social relevance shapes gaze understanding.

Infants exhibit gaze tracking towards social targets, particularly animated puppets, indicating awareness of relational social cues.
In a controlled observation, 8- to 9-month-old infants successfully tracked their parents' gaze directed at an animate puppet.
Analysis involved familiar versus unfamiliar adults and their gaze direction towards animate and inanimate objects.
These results highlight the early development of social gaze understanding in infants, pointing to innate social awareness.

Woo et al. (2025) studied this question.

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Observational study shows infants anticipate their parents’ gaze toward a puppet, suggesting social relevance shapes gaze understanding.