Final Report Summary - CACTUS (developmental social Cognition and ACTion UnderStanding)
CACTUS is a project in which we examined the interplay between action understanding, action evaluation, and social interaction. The first program contributed to a deeper understanding of the processes underlying action understanding, particularly the role of embodiment and teleology in the perception of action. The second program addressed social action evaluation. The third program examined aspects of social interaction, with a particular focus on the role of action itself. Some key findings are that infants are sensitive to social cues from others and use them to interpret actions and goals and that action development further informs social cognitive development. Across all three programs, we have been developing research methods and analysis tools. Most notably, we have developed Timestudio: a flexible, open source analysis software program for behavioral scientists.