一项研究发现，年龄最小至3个月的婴儿能预计其他人使用最有效率的运动去执行诸如搜索物体等动作。
Amy Skerry及其同事探索了一种主张，即人们只有在有进行类似活动的第一手经验的时候才能理解其他人的由目的引导的动作。这组作者研究了3个月大的婴儿，他们通常尚不能伸手去抓握物体。
这组作者使用尼龙搭扣覆盖的物体以及尼龙搭扣连指手套从而让一些婴儿练习成功地取回这些物体。然后所有这些婴儿都观看了一个人把手伸过一个障碍物去抓一个物体，然后，一旦这个障碍物被移走，这个人直接伸手去抓这个物体或者继续沿弧线去抓，仿佛障碍物没有被移走。即便这些练习抓物体的婴儿从未越过障碍去抓物体，一旦这个障碍物被移走，他们会预计这个动作者会直接去抓这个问题。另一些婴儿的反应并不取决于这个动作者伸手去抓是否有效率。这些发现提示婴儿只有在自己做过类似动作之后才能理解其他人的动作。
然而，这组作者说，这些婴儿认识有效率的动作能力超越了他们从自身对物体的动作中学到的东西，这提示婴儿拥有对目的引导的动作有某种一般的理解。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America doi: 10.1073/pnas.1312322110
First-person action experience reveals sensitivity to action efficiency in prereaching infants
Amy E. Skerry1， Susan E. Carey， and Elizabeth S. Spelke
Do infants learn to interpret others’ actions through their own experience producing goal-directed action， or does some knowledge of others’ actions precede first-person experience Several studies report that motor experience enhances action understanding， but the nature of this effect is not well understood. The present research investigates what is learned during early motoric production， and it tests whether knowledge of goal-directed actions， including an assumption that actors maximize efficiency given environmental constraints， exists before experience producing such actions. Three-month-old infants (who cannot yet effectively reach for and grasp objects) were given novel experience retrieving objects that rested on a surface with no barriers. They were then shown an actor reaching for an object over a barrier and tested for sensitivity to the efficiency of the action. These infants showed heightened attention when the agent reached inefficiently for a goal object； in contrast， infants who lacked successful reaching experience did not differentiate between direct and indirect reaches. Given that the infants could reach directly for objects during training and were given no opportunity to update their actions based on environmental constraints， the training experience itself is unlikely to have provided a basis for learning about action efficiency. We suggest that infants apply a general assumption of efficient action as soon as they have sufficient information (possibly derived from their own action experience) to identify an agent’s goal in a given instance.
