Young children see meaning in human looks but not in robot gazes, new study finds

Researchers tested 64 infants aged 10 and 12 months on whether they anticipate a target after seeing human or robot gaze shifts.

Twelve-month-olds expected an object to appear where a human looked, but did not show the same prediction for a humanoid robot.

Ten-month-olds showed no predictive response to either human or robot gaze.

The findings suggest infants treat human gaze as communicative and meaningful in a way robot gaze does not yet trigger.