Human infants may exhibit an altercentric bias, where the perspective of others biases their own cognition. This bias may serve a crucial learning function in early ontogeny. This work tested the two main predictions of an altercentric bias in 14-month-old infants: (i) conceptual information should also be encoded altercentrically, and (ii) the other's perspective may completely override infants' own processing. We probed if infants detect a semantic mismatch if hidden objects are labelled incorrectly from their own, or another person's perspective. Experiment 1 found a reduced electrophysiological mismatch response (the ‘N400’ event-related potential) when labeling was congruent from the other's perspective compared to incongruent, though it was always incongruent for the infant. Experiment 2 found no effect of (in)congruency from the infants' perspective when labeling was always congruent from the other's. These findings demonstrate a strong altercentric bias that prioritizes encoding conceptual information from others' perspective during early development.

When infants start mastering their first language, they may start to notice when words are used incorrectly. Around 14-months of age, infants detect incorrect labeling when they are presented with an object which is labeled while still visible. However, things that are referred to are often out of sight when we communicate about them. The present study examined infants’ detection of semantic mismatch when the object was occluded at the time of labeling. Specifically, we investigated whether mislabeling that referred to an occluded object could elicit a semantic mismatch. We showed 14-month-old Danish-speaking infants events where an onscreen agent showed an object and then hid it in a box. This was followed by another agent’s hand pointing at the box, and a concurrent auditory category label played, which either matched or did not match the hidden object. Our results indicate that there is an effect of semantic mismatch with a larger negativity in incongruent trials. Thus, infants detected a mismatch, as indicated by a larger n400, when occluded objects were mislabeled. This finding suggests that infants can sustain an object representation in memory and compare it to a semantic representation of an auditory category label.

People sometimes commit ‘egocentric errors’, failing to ignore their own perspective when interpreting others’ communication. Training imitation-inhibition, when participants perform the opposite action from another person, facilitates subsequent perspective-taking in adults. This study tested whether imitation-inhibition training also facilitates perspective-taking in 3-6-year-olds, an age where egocentric perspective may be particularly influential. Children participated in a 10-minute imitation-inhibition, imitation, or non-social-inhibition training (white, n=25 per condition, 33 female, period: 2018-2021), then the communicative-perspective-taking Director task. Training had a significant effect (F(2, 71) = 3.316, p = .042, η2 = .085): on critical trials the imitation-inhibition-group selected the correct object more often than the other groups. Imitation-inhibition training specifically enhanced the perspective-taking process possibly by highlighting the distinction between self and other.

The capacity to take another's perspective appears to be present from early in life, with young infants ostensibly able to predict others' behaviour even when the self and other perspective are at odds. Yet, infants' abilities are difficult to reconcile with the well-known problems that older children have with ignoring their own perspective. Here we show that it is the development of the self-perspective, at around 18 months, that creates a perspective conflict between self and other during a non-verbal perspective-tracking scenario. Using mirror self-recognition as a measure of self-awareness and pupil dilation to index conflict processing, our results show that mirror recognisers perceive greater conflict during action anticipation, specifically in a high inhibitory demand condition, in which conflict between self and other should be particularly salient.

The capacity to track another’s perspective is present from early in life, with young infants ostensibly able to predict others’ behaviour even when the self and other perspective are at odds. Yet, infants’ abilities are difficult to reconcile with the well-documented challenge that older children face when they need to ignore their own perspective. Here we provide evidence that it is the emergence of self-representation, from around 18 months, that likely creates a perspective conflict between self and other. Using mirror self-recognition as a measure of self-awareness and pupil dilation to index conflict processing, our results show that mirror recognisers perceive greater conflict than non-recognisers when viewing a scenario in which the self and other have divergent perspectives, specifically when the conflict between self and other is salient. These results suggest that infants’ perspective tracking abilities may benefit from an initial absence of self-representation.

The beta distribution is a two-parameter family of probability distributions whose distribution function is the (regularised) incomplete beta function. In this paper, the inverse incomplete beta function is studied analytically as a univariate function of the first parameter. Monotonicity, limit results and convexity properties are provided. In particular, logarithmic concavity of the inverse incomplete beta function is established. In addition, we provide monotonicity results on inverses of a larger class of parametrised distributions that may be of independent interest.

Author(s): Yeung, Emanuela; Askitis, Dimitrios; Manea, Velisar; Southgate, Victoria | Abstract: We examine whether development of self-awareness influences infants’ ability to track and use others’ perspectives to make belief-based action predictions. Based on the altercentric hypothesis (Southgate, 2020), we expect that infants who do not yet have a self-perspective to make more accurate predictions of an agent’s actions on a non-verbal mentalizing task (NVMT) compared to infants who may encode the other’s and their own conflicting perspective. To test this, we presented 18-month-olds, half of whom passed the mirror self-recognition (MSR) task, with a NVMT and used anticipatory looking as a measure of action-based attribution. Contrary to our hypothesis, preliminary findings with 32 infants using the differential looking score, suggest that those who pass the MSR task are more accurate in their anticipatory looking compared to infants who do not pass the MSR task. All other preregistered analyses will be conducted once data collection is complete in June 2021.

Monotonicity properties of the ratio $$ \log \frac{f(x+a_1)\cdots f(x+a_n)}{f(x+b_1)\cdots f(x+b_n)}, $$ where $f$ is an entire function are investigated. Earlier results for Euler's gamma function and other entire functions of genus 1 are generalised to entire functions of genus $p$ with negative zeros. Derivatives of order comparable to $p$ of the expression above are related to generalised Stieltjes functions of order $p+1$. Our results are applied to the Barnes multiple gamma functions. We also show how recent results on the behaviour of Euler's gamma function on vertical lines can be sharpened and generalised to functions of higher genus. Finally a connection to the so-called Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem is described.

In [3], after defining notions of LS category in the simplicial context, the authors show that the geometric simplicial LS category is non-decreasing under strong collapses. However, they do not give examples where it increases strictly, but they conjecture that such an example should exist, and thus that the geometric simplicial LS category is not strong homotopy invariant. The purpose of this note is to provide with such an example. We construct a simplicial complex whose simplicial and geometric simplicial LS categories are different, and using this, we provide an example of a strong collapse that increases the geometric simplicial LS category, thus settling the geometric simplicial LS category not being strong homotopy invariant.

In this work in progress, we study the asymptotic behaviour of the $p$-quantile of the Beta distribution, i.e. the quantity $q$ defined implicitly by $\int_0^q t^{a - 1} (1 - t)^{b - 1} \text{d} t = p B (a, b)$, as a function of the first parameter $a$. In particular, we derive asymptotic expansions of and $q$ and its logarithm at $0$ and $\infty$. Moreover, we provide some relations between Bell and N{\o}rlund Polynomials, a generalisation of Bernoulli numbers. Finally, we provide Maple and Sage algorithms for computing the terms of the asymptotic expansions.