Social Interaction in Knowledge Acquisition: Advanced Curriculum Critical Review of Studies Relevant to Social Behavior of Infants

Abstract

The discussion paper investigates other researches that observe social behavior in studies with no communication between subjects. This current analysis reviews several studies on social phenomena – categorization of words, preference of faces and even race – in newborns and 3- to 4-months-old infants and complements their findings. The review states that newborns and young infants are not able to independently classify phenomena from social reality and perceptually interact with adults effectively enough to understand the meanings of social phenomena on their own. The paper concludes that the social behavior of infants is driven by adult social learning through non-perceptual social interaction between them.