Mirror-image stimulation and short separations in stumptail monkeys

Two experiments examined the responses of infant stumptail macaques (Macaco arctoides) to mirror-image stimulation (MIS) during short social separations. Overall, infants living in pairs showed agitation when separated from their partners, but were calmer when the partner, an unfamiliar peer, or their own mirror image was visible. MIS elicited more facial expressions than the familiar peer, and more affiliative contact than an unfamiliar peer. In contrast, infants reared in a group were not calmed during separations either by an unfamiliar peer or by MIS, and they exhibited some negative reactions to the mirror. Social responsiveness to MIS varies with the social background of the subjects.     

Maternal, Teacher, and Child Care History Correlates of Children's Relationships with Peers

Mother and teacher correlates of social competence with familiar and unfamiliar peers in 84 children who entered child care at three different times are examined. Social competence at age 4 was assessed with both familiar and unfamiliar peers. Relationships with both initial and 4-year-old teachers were related to social competence with peers. Maternal attachment relationships at 12 months and at 4 years did not predict social competence with peers.     

Toys and social interaction between infant peers

Claims that young infants fail to react in a social manner to one another and that toys preempt attention to peers were assessed by comparing the interactions observed between infant peers when they met in the presence of toys versus in their absence. 44 pairs of unacquainted infants (either 10--12 or 22--24 months of age) came with their mothers to an unfamiliar room. Without toys available in the room, infants of both ages more often contacted one another, smiled at and gestured to one another, and duplicated each other's actions. With toys, they showed and exchanged toys and spent more time synchronously manipulating similar play material. The results document that infants as young as 10 months of age are responsive to the person and behavior of an unfamiliar peer and that they are no less responsive than older infants to the social versus nonsocial aspects of a novel setting.     

Theory of mind and social interest in zero-acquaintance play situations

Many studies have examined associations between children's theory of mind and social behavior with familiar peers, but to date none have examined how theory of mind might relate to behavior toward unfamiliar peers in a play setting. Forty-four 4-year-olds (21 girls, 23 boys) participated in standard theory-of-mind tasks and in a play session with 3 or 4 other children who were unfamiliar. Children were also tested on general vocabulary ability. No relations were found between theory of mind and social engagement. However, positive associations were found between theory of mind and time spent observing, but not interacting with, other children. Possible explanations of the links between theory of mind, temperament, and social interest are considered.     

Socially facilitated drinking behavior in chicks (Gallus domesticus): Relative effects of drive and stimulus mechanisms

The drinking behavior of individual chicks (n = 168) was studied in two discrimination situations when the individual was alone or with an audience of merely present (not drinking) or coacting (drinking) conspecifics. In one discrimination task, a familiar and an unfamiliar drinking tube (FU) were presented simultaneously; in the other discrimination task, two unfamiliar tubes (UU) were presented. The coacting audience received a familiar and an unfamiliar tube; their familiar tube was always unfamiliar to the subject. Subjects drank more when conspecifics were present, intake being highest in the presence of coacting conspecifics. Intake was higher in the FU discrimination than in UU. However, in the UU discrimination, individuals that were tested with coactors drank most of their total intake from the tube that was similar to the coactors’ familiar tube. In the FU task, individual subjects drank mostly from their familiar tube in each social condition. However, this effect was smaller for those tested with coacting conspecifics than for those tested with merely present conspecifics.     

Six-month-old infants' categorization of containment spatial relations

Six-month-old infants' ability to form an abstract category of containment was examined using a standard infant categorization task. Infants were habituated to 4 pairs of objects in a containment relation. Following habituation, infants were tested with a novel example of the familiar containment relation and an example of an unfamiliar relation. Results indicate that infants look reliably longer at the unfamiliar versus familiar relation, indicating that they can form a categorical representation of containment. A second experiment demonstrated that infants do not rely on object occlusion to discriminate containment from a support or a behind spatial relation. Together, the results indicate that by 6 months, infants can recognize a containment relation from different angles and across different pairs of objects.     

Social contexts of learning literate language: The role of varied, familiar, and close peer relationships

Two prominent theories in evolutionary biology have stressed the role of social contexts in the evolution of primate cognition. One theory holds that cognition evolved in the context of individuals having to keep track of their interactions with a variety of conspecifics. In the other theory, cognition evolved in the contexts of familiar and close social relationships. In this paper, we present two experiments examining the effects of varied, familiar, and close social contacts on preschool children's literate language and story re-reading. We hypothesized, based on developmental evolutionary theory, that closeness, in the form of increased familiarity and friendship, would maximize children's expression of emotional terms, conflict/resolution cycles, collaborative responses, literate language, and story re-readings. In Study 1, children were exposed to one of two conditions. In the more familiar condition, initially unfamiliar children interacted with the same peer across four separate observations. In the less familiar, varied condition, a focal child interacted with a different unfamiliar peer on four separate occasions. Consistent with predictions, children in the more familiar condition increased their use of emotional terms and literate language and story re-reading with time. In Study 2, a familiar group (as defined in Study 1) was compared with children in bestfriend dyads. As predicted, friends outperformed familiar peers initially, but between-group differences decreased across time while children's performance in the familiar group increased across time. Results are discussed in terms of the role of familiarity in the evolution of cooperation and cognition.     

Electroencephalogram and Heart Rate Regulation to Familiar and Unfamiliar People in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Few studies have examined whether familiarity of partner affects social responses in children with autism. This study investigated heart rate regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]: The myelinated vagus nerve's regulation of heart rate) and temporal–parietal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while nineteen 8- to 12-year-old children with autism and 14 controls viewed videos of a familiar and an unfamiliar person reading a story. Children with autism had lower overall RSA levels and exhibited decreased RSA to the unfamiliar person, versus control children. Both groups decreased temporal–parietal EEG activity to the unfamiliar person. Higher RSA was related to higher social skill ratings and fewer problem behaviors. Thus, the social difficulties of children with autism may be characterized by specific mobilization to unfamiliar people.     

Smile production in older infants: the importance of a social recipient for the facial signal

2 studies tested the hypothesis that infant smile production depends on the availability of a social recipient for the facial signal, as well as on appropriate internal events. We examined the effects of attentive and inattentive, familiar and unfamiliar social objects on smile production in 1 1/2-year-old infants outside of social interactions. Like adults, these infants directed a majority of the smiles produced during nonsocial activity to an attentive social object. Overall smiling frequency was much lower when the only potential recipient (the mother) was inattentive, but the effect did not appear to be mediated by negative emotion. Only smiles directed to mother were reduced: nonsocial smiling (at the toys) was not sensitive to mother's inattention, and when an attentive, friendly stranger was present, she was accepted as a substitute target for social smiles. We conclude that an open channel of social communication promotes the outward expression of internal affect in infants.     

Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety: the role of social referencing processes in infancy

Responses to an unfamiliar adult were examined in infants of mothers with social phobia ( N = 79) and infants of nonanxious comparison mothers ( N = 77) at 10 and 14 months in a social referencing paradigm. On each occasion, a female stranger first interacted with the mother and then approached and interacted with the infant. Over time, infants of mothers with social phobia showed increasing avoidance of the stranger, particularly when they were behaviorally inhibited. In boys, maternal social phobia was associated with increasing fearful responses. Infant avoidance was predicted by expressed maternal anxiety and low levels of encouragement to interact with the stranger. The findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.     

Social interaction between drugged and undrugged rats

Social interaction between two rats placed in a hole-board apparatus was studied. The duration and frequency of active contact was higher for animals housed singly than for those housed in pairs, and for those tested with an unfamiliar rather than a familiar partner. Animals housed alone had a higher frequency and duration of passive contact, but the familiarity of the partner did not affect this measure. Chlorpromazine reduced the frequency of active contact but increased the frequency and duration of passive contact. When only one of the pair was drugged, both rats showed more frequent changes from one behavior to another, compared with pairs where both were in the same drug state. Animals housed alone showed the highest number of changes in behavior, and those tested with an unfamiliar partner showed a higher level than those tested with a familiar one.     

Developmental change in the ERP responses to familiar faces in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders versus typical development

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show differences in face processing abilities from early in development. To examine whether these differences reflect an atypical versus delayed developmental trajectory, neural responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in twenty-four 18- to 47-month-old children with ASD were compared with responses of thirty-two 12- to 30-month-old typically developing children. Results of 2 experiments revealed that neural responses to faces in children with ASD resembled those observed in younger typically developing children, suggesting delayed development. Electrophysiological responses to faces were also related to parent report of adaptive social behaviors for both children with ASD and typical development. Slower development of the face processing system in ASD may be related to reduced self-directed "expected" experience with faces in early development.     

Social interactions of young abused children: approach, avoidance, and aggression.

10 abused toddlers (ages 1-3 years) and 10 matched controls from families experiencing stress were observed during social interactions with caregivers and with peers in their daycare settings. The abused infants more frequently physically assaulted their peers. They "harassed" their caregivers verbally and nonverbally, and they were the only infants who assaulted or threatened to assault them. The abused infants were much less likely than the controls to approach their caregivers in response to friendly overtures; when they did so they were more likely to approach to the side, to the rear, or by turning about and backstepping. In response to friendly overtures the abused infants more frequently avoided peers and caregivers or combined movements of approach with movements of avoidance. A similar behavior pattern has been identified by Main in maternally rejected infants in normal samples.     

Infants' interactions with mother, sibling, and peer: contrasts and relations between interaction systems

The role of the mother in structuring interactions with the infant during free play was examined at 6 and 9 months. Maternal scaffolding of turn-taking exchanges was then contrasted to the forms of turn-taking apparent in sibling-infant and peer-infant observations. Infants spent more time in turn-taking exchanges with their mothers than with their siblings or peers. These exchanges most often took the form of mothers creating sequences by responding to infants' social and nonsocial acts and by eliciting social and nonsocial responses from the infants. Infants' exchanges with older siblings were briefer and more typically involved the older children eliciting nonsocial responses from the infants but not responding contingently to the infants' interests and actions. Infant peers spent less time in turn-taking exchanges, and their interactions showed less evidence of scaffolding. At the same time, the proportion of strictly social interactions was greatest with peers. Relations were apparent between infants' turn-taking experiences with their mothers and the infants' subsequent interactions with their siblings and with their peers. Relations were also found between infants' interaction experiences with their older siblings and subsequent peer interaction. Those infants with more extensive turn-taking experience with more skilled social partners were subsequently observed to engage in more extensive turn-taking interactions with a peer. These results are discussed in terms of studies on mother-infant attachment and peer competence, maternal scaffolding, and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.     

Following their companions as a form of exploration for human infants

Infants' following of other persons, often considered a measure of attachment, qualified as a form of exploration. The results of the first experiment indicated that following can be a means of investigating novel leaders: 16 9--12-month-old infants were as likely to follow an unfamiliar woman as they were the parent and were reliably more likely to follow a moving toy. The second and third experiments assessed the extent to which the experience of following familiar persons promotes learning about the environment. Infants who followed their mothers to 1 place were more likely later to investigate a similar place than those who initially either locomoted independently (experiment 2) or were transported by their mothers (experiment 3). The findings suggested that infants' transactions with the environment need not be considered antithetical to their social behavior.     

Maternal separation in bonnet monkey infants: altered attachment and social support

Maternal separation in young pigtail (M. nemestrina) monkeys results in an agitation-depression reaction that is a useful animal model of the behavioral and physiological consequences and separation and loss experiences in humans. In this study, 5 social-group-living bonnet (M. radiata) monkey infants were separated from their mothers for 4 days, and behavioral, physiological, and sleep-pattern changes were monitored. Behavioral and physiological changes were consistent with an agitation reaction. There was evidence of depression in both behavioral and physiological measures; these changes were not as pronounced as in pigtail infants, however. All infants were adopted by another adult female during separation. Our findings suggest that, in bonnet monkey infants, adoption by a female within the social group ameliorates the response to loss.     

Support provider mood and familiar versus unfamiliar events: An investigation of social support quality

Much of what communication scholars know about the production of effective comforting messages comes from the constructivist framework of Applegate (1980), Burleson (1985), and others. This paper extends this framework by addressing two questions put forth by scholars in this area, namely, what is the influence of cognition‐inhibiting situational variables such as mood on the generation of sophisticated, person‐centered comforting messages, and is this influence greater in situations requiring increased cognitive processing (Burleson & Planalp, 2000). In this study, support providers’ moods were manipulated before they were presented with either a familiar or an unfamiliar hypothetical support scenario. As hypothesized, results showed that supportive messages provided in response to a familiar situation were significantly more sophisticated than messages provided in response to an unfamiliar situation. Participants exposed to the happy mood induction encoded significantly more sophisticated comforting messages than did participants exposed to the sad mood induction. No effect was found regarding a two‐way interaction between the support provider's mood and the recipient's situation. Results are discussed within the constructivist framework for social support research, and directions for future investigations of social support are suggested.     

Recognition of maternal axillary odors by infants

A series of 5 experiments was conducted to determine whether neonates, at approximately 2 weeks of age, can recognize their parents through axillary odors alone. Breast-feeding infants discriminated between their mother's axillary odor and odors produced by either nonparturient or unfamiliar lactating females. In contrast, breast-feeding infants displayed no evidence of recognizing the axillary odors of their father. Likewise, bottle-feeding infants appeared unable to recognize the odor of their mother when presented along with odors from a nonparturient female or an unfamiliar bottle-feeding female. Several hypotheses were presented in an attempt to account for the differential reactions to maternal odors by breast-feeding versus bottle-feeding infants. It was tentatively concluded that, while breast-feeding, infants are exposed to salient maternal odors and thereby rapidly become familiarized with their mother's unique olfactory signature.     

Patterns of Social Expectations among Black and Mexican-American Children

In 2 studies, a total of 213 black and Mexican-American third- and sixth-grade children were asked to respond to 8 videotaped scenes of everyday social encounters with same-ethnic, unfamiliar peers at school. Mexican-American children reported expectations for sharing and relying on authority figures significantly more often, and apologizing, getting angry, and initiating action significantly less often than their black peers. Emotional responses decreased and socially desirable responses increased with grade for both groups. In addition, ethnic differences were greater at the sixth-grade than at the third-grade level for both groups. Girls apologized and sought help from teachers more often than boys, and social expectations varied by sex for each ethnic group. Individual children varied in the degree of similarity to their group, with some children giving responses highly typical of their group across all 8 scenes and others giving responses not typical of their group. High self-esteem was significantly correlated to being similar to one's own group.     

Mastery Motivation in Deaf and Hearing Infants

The motivational characteristics of a small sample of normally developing deaf and hearing 12-month-old infants were assessed using procedures derived from Yarrow's work. The data supported the following conclusions: 1. Both deaf and hearing infants exhibit similar amounts of motivated behavior toward objects which suggests that auditory contact with their surroundings is not a determining factor in infants' attempts to master objects. 2. The deaf infants spent a longer period of time engaged in social behaviors than did the hearing infants and without any apparent sacrifice to the deployment of their task- and goal-directed activities. This finding implies that the deaf infants were more skillful at integrating the competing demands of social- and object-oriented endeavors than were their hearing peers. 3. The deaf infant engaged with the social environment and displayed a positive emotional response to the situation sooner than the hearing infants. Positive affect also was more likely to be followed by a social behavior for the deaf infants which indicates that the integration of social- and object-oriented activities serves either a different or more potent function in the early development of deaf infants. We believe that these data offer some preliminary, empirically based support for a developmental difference model when intervention strategies for deaf infants are contemplated. The policy implications for such a move may include a reduction in cognitively oriented activities and an increase in activities designed to capitalize on deaf infants' social and visual compensatory skills.