Toddlers Read Intentions at 18 Months: Meltzoff's "Failed Attempts" Experiment
In short
Andrew Meltzoff showed that by 18 months, children see goals and intentions behind people's actions. After watching an adult try and fail to do something, toddlers do what the adult meant to do — rather than copying the failed movements.
How the experiment worked
18-month-old children were shown specially designed toys, such as a "dumbbell" of two cubes that could be pulled apart. Some children saw an adult successfully pull it apart. Others saw the adult try and fail — their hands slipped off. Control groups saw only the toys or meaningless manipulations. The toy was then handed to the child.
In a second experiment, the same "failed" movements were performed by a mechanicaldevice, not a person.
Results
Children who saw only the failed attempt produced the intended act as often as those who saw it succeed — and far more often than controls.
When a machine "tried", children rarely produced the target act: they attribute intentions to people, not objects.
Conclusions and significance for developmental psychology
By 18 months, children understand others as beings with goals and intentions — long before they pass false-belief tests. Meltzoff framed this through the "like me" idea: children understand others by analogy with themselves. The study became a cornerstone of research on early social cognition, joint attention and cultural learning (Tomasello et al., 2005).
What it means for parents
Your toddler learns by watching not only your movements but your goals. Show and say what you are trying to do ("I want to open the box") — it builds both understanding of others and language.
What it means for professionals
The behavioral re-enactment procedure is used to study early development and social cognition, including when autism spectrum conditions are suspected. Imitation, joint attention and intention-reading are key markers when assessing children aged 1–2.
References
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 63(4), i–vi, 1–174. https://doi.org/10.2307/1166214
Meltzoff, A. N. (1995). Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children. Developmental Psychology, 31(5), 838–850. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.31.5.838
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198(4312), 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.198.4312.75
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(5), 675–691. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X05000129