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We tested the early ontogeny of this assumption in two domains: action and communication. Studies 1A and 1B tested whether 9-month-old infants assume that agents act coherently. Infants watched interactions between two hands whose owner(s) were invisible. In the contrary goals condition, the hand performed contrary actions\u2014one hand reached for an object while the other impeded it. Later, during test trials, infants learned that the hands belonged to one or two people. Looking-time patterns across the contrary goals and a baseline conditions indicated that clear goal conflict led infants to infer two agents, suggesting they viewed it as unlikely for a single person to thwart their own goal. Study 2 tested whether infants assume communicative coherence, testing whether they assume that a single informant is unlikely to entertain and communicate conflicting information while two informants might do so. Informants pointed to indicate a toy\u2019s location to 15-month-olds. When two different informants each pointed to a different place, infants did not follow one pointing gesture more than the other. However, when a single informant pointed successively to two locations, infants followed the second gesture, implying they viewed it as an updated, not contradictory, message. Thus, infants assumed that a single informant is unlikely to contradict themselves (i.e., by asserting that a toy is simultaneously in two locations). These findings reveal an early-emerging assumption of psychological coherence in infants\u2019 representation of other minds, across both action and communication contexts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/opmi.a.339","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,23]],"date-time":"2026-03-23T22:03:57Z","timestamp":1774303437000},"page":"287-305","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Core Intuitions of Psychological Non-Contradiction: Infants Assume That Individual Agents Act and Communicate Coherently"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1120-5955","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Olivier","family":"Mascaro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, Universit\u00e9 Paris Cit\u00e9, CNRS, Paris, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"\u00c1gnes","family":"Kov\u00e1cs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026032711155591900_bib1","volume-title":"Metaphysics","author":"Aristotle","year":"2020"},{"issue":"2","key":"2026032711155591900_bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0245450","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0245450","article-title":"Infants\u2019 representation of social hierarchies in absence of physical dominance","volume":"16","author":"Bas","year":"2021","journal-title":"PLOS One"},{"issue":"6","key":"2026032711155591900_bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"492","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2005.00440.x","article-title":"One-year-olds comprehend the communicative intentions behind gestures in a hiding game","volume":"8","author":"Behne","year":"2005","journal-title":"Developmental Science"},{"issue":"3","key":"2026032711155591900_bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"359","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2044-835X.2011.02043.x","article-title":"Twelve-month-olds\u2019 comprehension and production of pointing","volume":"30","author":"Behne","year":"2012","journal-title":"British Journal of Developmental Psychology"},{"key":"2026032711155591900_bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198528272.003.0005","article-title":"Animal reasoning and proto-logic","author":"Berm\u00fadez","year":"2006","journal-title":"Rational animals?"},{"issue":"2","key":"2026032711155591900_bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"292","DOI":"10.1001\/archneur.61.2.292","article-title":"Alien hand syndrome","volume":"61","author":"Biran","year":"2004","journal-title":"Archives of Neurology"},{"issue":"3","key":"2026032711155591900_bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2006.00544.x","article-title":"Infants\u2019 perception of goal-directed actions: Development through cue-based bootstrapping","volume":"10","author":"Biro","year":"2007","journal-title":"Developmental Science"},{"issue":"4","key":"2026032711155591900_bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"388","DOI":"10.1006\/cogp.2002.0779","article-title":"The human first hypothesis: Identification of conspecifics and individuation of objects in the young infant","volume":"44","author":"Bonatti","year":"2002","journal-title":"Cognitive Psychology"},{"issue":"1","key":"2026032711155591900_bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9280.2008.02246.x","article-title":"You can\u2019t always get what you want: Infants understand failed goal-directed actions","volume":"20","author":"Brandone","year":"2009","journal-title":"Psychological Science"},{"issue":"2\/3","key":"2026032711155591900_bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"271","DOI":"10.5840\/soctheorpract198392\/313","article-title":"Taking plans seriously","volume":"9","author":"Bratman","year":"1983","journal-title":"Social Theory and Practice"},{"key":"2026032711155591900_bib11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511720185.002","article-title":"Intention, belief, and instrumental rationality","volume-title":"Reasons for action","author":"Bratman","year":"2009"},{"issue":"4","key":"2026032711155591900_bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"860","DOI":"10.1080\/03610911003650383","article-title":"How big is a big odds ratio? 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