Adult Tactile Stimulation during Face-to-Face Interactions Modulates Five-Month-Olds'' Affect and Attention

3 studies were designed to investigate infant responses to tactile stimulation during brief adult-infant interaction using a modified still-face (SF) procedure. When adults pose a neutral SF expression, infants decrease gazing and smiling at the adults, and some increase grimacing, relative to normal interaction periods. This SF effect was substantially reduced in Study 1 when mothers or strangers continued to touch infants during the SF period. In Studies 2 and 3, tactile versus visual and active versus passive aspects of adult touch were isolated during different SF periods. Visible, active adult hands unaccompanied by touch elicited infant attention, but not smiling, during the SF period. By contrast, active, not passive, adult touch substantially reduced the SF effect, even when the adult's hands were invisible. In the latter condition, infants continued to gaze and smile at the adult's SF. Thus, adult facial expressions are not the only modulator of infant affect and attention during social exchanges; adult touch appears to play an active role.     

The effect of manipulating maternal behavior during an interaction on three- and six-month-olds' affect and attention

3 studies were designed to examine the "still-face" paradigm, in which mothers stared at their 3- or 6-month-olds for a brief, still-face period interposed between 2 periods of normal face-to-face interaction. 6-month-olds decreased smiling and gazing at their mothers and grimaced more during the still-face period relative to the other periods; no period effects occurred in a no-change control group (Studies 1 and 2). Similar results were obtained when mothers and their infants observed and interacted with each other over closed-circuit color television monitors (Study 3). Moreover, the same relative decline in the infants' visual attention and positive affect during the still-face period occurred to a change in mothers' facial display (a televised, prerecorded, still face vs. a televised, live, interacting face) regardless of the presence or absence of their interactive voices (sound on the infants' monitor turned on or off). 3-month-olds exhibited a significant still-face effect, but only when maternal touch was a part of the manipulation (Study 1 vs. 2); therefore, the televised procedure was not conducted. The still-face effect is a robust phenomenon, produced with either "live" or "televised" procedures, both of which offer promising techniques for examining models of socioemotional perception/understanding of infants.     

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.     

Infant and maternal sensitivity to interpersonal timing

A perturbation paradigm was employed to assess 3- and 6-month-old infants' and their mothers' sensitivity to a 3-s temporal delay implemented in an ongoing televised interaction. At both ages, the temporal delay affected infant but not maternal behavior and only when implementing the temporal delay in maternal (Experiment 1, N=64) but not infant (Experiment 2, N=60) behavior. In addition, the experimental manipulation influenced promptness of maternal smiling responses reliably more than promptness of infant smiling responses. The findings suggest that the timing of maternal behavior plays an important role in infants' perception of maternal responsiveness, whereas mothers seem to monitor general aspects of infant behavior such as overall level of engagement.     

The perception of smiling and its experiential correlates in three-month-old infants

We studied individual differences in 3-month-olds' perceptions of smiling and the experiential correlates of those differences. In the laboratory, infants saw a graduated series of smiles that grew in intensity of expression. As a group, 3-month-olds preferred increasingly intense expressions of smiling, but individually they showed different growth rates of preference across the smiling series. Further, infants' preferences related to their home experiences: Infants who showed greater sensitivity to smiling had mothers who more frequently encouraged attention to themselves when they were smiling and their infants were looking at them. Infant discrimination within and between categories of facial expression and the relative strengths of association between different kinds of naturally occurring experiences and infant perceptual sensitivity are discussed.     

Infants’ Preference for Social Interactions Increases from 7 to 13 Months of Age

This study examined 7-to-13.5-month-old middle-class Western infants’ visual orienting to third-party interactions in parallel with their social attention behavior during own social interactions (Leipzig, Germany). In Experiment 1, 9.5- to-11-month-olds (n = 20) looked longer than 7- to-8.5-month-olds (n = 20) at videos showing two adults interacting with one another when simultaneously presented with a scene showing two adults acting individually. Moreover, older infants showed higher social engagement (including joint attention) during parent–infant free play. Experiment 2 replicated this age-related increase in both measures and showed that it follows continuous trajectories from 7 to 13.5 months (n = 50). This suggests that infants’ attentional orienting to others’ interactions coincides with parallel developments in their social attention behavior during own social interactions.     

The development of detour ability during infancy

3 longitudinal studies were conducted to examine the generalization of detour ability across motor responses and barrier types and the relationship between the development of object permanence and detour ability. In Experiment 1, 12 8-month-olds were tested every 3 weeks for 4 months on 4 different detour problems and Stage 4 and 6 object permanence tasks. In the detour problems, infants had to reach or move around a transparent or opaque barrier to obtain an object. The results indicated that infants made reaching detours before corresponding locomotor ones and generally made detours around opaque barriers before transparent ones. Infants also solved the Stage 4 task before the detour problems but failed to solve the Stage 6 task before testing ended. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that the difference in reaching and locomotor detour performance was not an artifact of barrier length or the infant's position relative to the barrier. The overall results are discussed in relation to issues of developmental synchrony and Piaget's theory of infant spatial development.     

The effect of narrative cues on infants' imitation from television and picture books

Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books, yet there has been no direct comparison of infants' imitation from the 2 types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, the current experiments measured 18- and 24-month-olds' imitation from television and picture books. Infants imitated from both media types when full narrative cues (Experiment 1; N = 76) or empty, meaningless narration (Experiment 2; N = 135) accompanied the demonstrations, but they imitated more from television than books. In Experiment 3 (N = 27), infants imitated from a book based on narration alone, without the presence of pictures. These results are discussed in relation to age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and infants' emerging symbolic understanding.     

Effects of Televised Lecture Presentation Styles on Student Learning

College level instructional television (ITV) has been criticised for rigid formats involving little creative or interactive use of the media. Limited budgets and other constraints make it difficult for most ITV operations to introduce innovative communication modes. However, literature suggests other techniques to improve instructional television, specifically the use of interspersed questions and eye contact. This study manipulated these techniques in a television lecture, examining their relevance to student learning and acceptance. In a 2X2 experiment, four sections of an undergraduate course each viewed a different videotape treatment of the same lecture and content. Results yielded four conclusions. (1) Presenter eye contact and inserted questions are perceived as useful learning aids in televised lecture presentations. (2) Student satisfaction with, and interest in, televised courses is relatively low, with various learning difficulties reported. (3) Positive perception of eye contact and inserted questions correlates with higher levels of student interest in and satisfaction with televised courses. (4) Neither eye contact nor inserted questions impact directly on short‐term learning. Further studies would identify ways to more effectively manipulate eye contact and inserted questions in instructional television presentations, exploring how these techniques can enhance student learning motivation and reduce learning difficulties. Long‐term effects of these techniques on learning also should be explored     

Some determinants of response summation

Response summation in pigeons was examined in four experiments. In Experiment 1, summation was not found with a compound of two visual stimuli on a television screen after they had individually been used for instrumental conditioning. In this experiment, the training and test trials were separated by an interval during which the television screen was dark. Summation was found in Experiment 2 for which the television screen was permanently white during the interval between trials and in the region that was not occupied by the experimental stimuli. These results were replicated using a within-subject design (Experiment 3) and autoshaping (Experiment 4). Experiment 2 also revealed summation with compounds of auditory and visual stimuli, but not with compounds of two auditory stimuli or two diffuse lights. The results can be explained by a variety of theories of learning, if they take account of generalization between the stimuli.     

Sensitivity to Visual-Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy

Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4- (n = 15) and 6-month-old (n = 12) infants’ visual preferences for visual-tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4- and 6-month-olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual-tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual-tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6- (Experiment 1), and 4-month-olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual-tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching.     

Does Infant Carrying Promote Attachment? An Experimental Study of the Effects of Increased Physical Contact on the Development of Attachment

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that increased physical contact, experimentally induced, would promote greater maternal responsiveness and more secure attachment between infant and mother. Low-SES mothers of newborn infants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 23) that received soft baby carriers (more physical contact) or to a control group (n = 26) that received infants seats (less contact). Using a transitional probability analysis of a play session at 31/2 months, it was demonstrated that mothers in the experimental group were more contingently responsive than control mothers to their infants' vocalizations. When the infants were 13 months old, the Ainsworth Strange Situation was administered. Significantly more experimental than control infants were securely attached to their mothers. We infer from these results that for low-income, inner-city mothers, there may be a causal relation between increased physical contact, achieved through early carrying in a soft baby carrier, and subsequent security of attachment between infant and mother.     

Amount,content and context of infant media exposure: a parental questionnaire and diary analysis

Recent research has indicated that there are long‐term consequences of early media exposure. This study examined the amount, content and context of television exposure across the infancy period in the USA. Parents of 308 infants aged 6–18 months completed questionnaires detailing parental attitudes regarding their children’s television use and 24‐hour television diaries to provide an accurate measurement of household television usage. Television exposure during infancy varied as a function of infant age, sibling status, socio‐economic status and parental attitudes toward television. Regression analyses indicated that parental attitudes were not associated with the amount of television exposure, but were associated with the content of television exposure. These findings indicate that television exposure changes rapidly across infancy and is associated with parental attitudes.     

Role of proactive interference in infantile forgetting

Ontogenetic changes in the role of proactive interference in augmenting forgetting were tested with 444 rats as subjects. In Experiment 1, Phase 1 (the source of proactive interference) included events that were contingent or not contingent on responding in the context of either the Phase 2 training apparatus or a distinctly different apparatus. After learning a spatial discrimination for Phase 2, retention tests were given after intervals of 2 min, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, or 65 days. The results indicated: (1) infantile amnesia, and (2) proactive interference for infant rats but not for adults, in spite of substantial simple forgetting among adults. Experiment 2 extended the test to a go/no-go avoidance task. The results of Experiment 2 gave some indication that infants were more susceptible than were adults to proactive interference over short intervals, but the generality of this relationship was sufficiently ambiguous as to suggest different mechanisms of interference for the discrimination and go/no-go tasks. These data indicate multiple mechanisms of infantile forgetting that may vary with certain characteristics of the task.     

The Role of an Early Intervention on Enhancing the Quality of Mother-Infant Interaction

The study examines an intervention designed to influence mothers' sensitive responsiveness toward their infant by presenting information about the newborn's competence to interact and promoting affectionate handling and interaction with the infant. Thirty-six primiparous mothers and their newborn infants participated in the study. On day 2/3 after delivery, mother-infant dyads were assigned to either: (1) an experimental group that received an intervention program designed to enhance mother-infant interaction; or (2) a control group that was presented with an intervention that emphasized basic caregiving skills. One month later an observation was undertaken in the home to assess mother-infant synchronous and asynchronous co-occurrences during free-play and infant bathing. The enhancement group showed a reliably greater frequency of co-occurrences involving vocal exchanges, looking to the partner, and physical contact. There also were differences in mothers' responsiveness to infant crying and involuntary responses. The findings show that even a modest videotaped early intervention can enhance mothers' sensitive responsiveness to the infant.     

Social Influences on False Belief Access: Specific Sibling Influences or General Apprenticeship?

Some recent studies have found a relation between the number of siblings 3–4-year-old children have and their performance on false belief tasks. 2 experiments reported here examine a variety of factors in children's social environments, including daily contact with peers and adults as well as the numbers of their siblings, on a battery of false belief tests. In Experiment 1, 82 preschoolers were studied in Rethymnon, Crete, in order to obtain a range of extended kin available as a resource for the child. In Experiment 2, 75 Cypriot preschoolers were studied in Nicosia in order to examine the influences of each child's daily social contacts, as measured by maternal questionnaire. Logistic regression revealed that the factors which account for most of the predicted variance on the theory of mind tests were ( a ) the number of adult kin available (Experiment 1) or adults interacted with daily (Experiment 2), ( b ) the child's age, ( c ) the number of older siblings a child has, and ( d ) the number of older children interacted with daily. The results suggested that theory of mind is not simply passed from one sibling to another in a process of social influence. It seems more likely that a variety of knowledgeable members of her or his culture influence the apprentice theoretician of mind.     

The development of toddlers' responses to affectionate teacher behavior

The development of new teacher-toddler affectional systems was examined. Ten toddlers were observed on the first 40 days of day care attendance during free play. The children's responses to their teacher's smiling, affectionate words, and affectionate contact were recorded. Smiling received affectionate child responses earlier than did affectionate words or contact. Smiling was also more likely to receive affectionate responses overall. The teachers' frequency of smiling predicted the likelihood of affectionate child responses to affectionate contact better than did the teachers' frequency of affectionate contact. The key role of smiling in the development of reciprocal affection is discussed.     

Infant temperament and subject loss due to crying during operant conditioning

Infants who failed to complete a 2-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis revealed that female infants who cried differed from female infants who did not cry on measures of duration of orienting and latency to approach sudden or novel stimuli. Reliable prediction of crying and noncrying could not, however, be made for males. No sex differences emerged in the incidence of crying or in the number of sessions completed. Partially successful females (i.e., those completing 1 of the 2 sessions) could reliably be discriminated from those who cried during the first session on measures of age at testing and maternal ratings of smiling behavior. The results of this study suggest that, as with habituation studies, subject loss in operant-conditioning studies is influenced by individual differences among the infants which may or may not adversely affect external validity.     

Television viewing at home: age trends in visual attention and time with TV

The TV-viewing behavior of 99 families with young children was videotaped by automated time-lapse recording equipment placed in homes for 10-day periods. The 99 families comprised 460 individuals from infants to 62 years of age. Time-sample analyses of 4,672 hours of recordings indicated that the TV-viewing room contained no viewers 14.7% of the time that the TV was on. There were no age trends in time spent with television. Percent visual attention to television increased greatly across the preschool years, leveled off at about 70% during the school-age years, and declined in adulthood. Men looked at the TV more than women. There were no significant correlations between time spent with TV and percent of visual attention to TV. The increase in visual attention to television during the preschool years is consistent with the theory that TV program comprehensibility is a major determination of attention in young children.     

Smiling and Fussing in Seven-Month-Old Preterm and Full-Term Black Infants in the Still-Face Situation

We investigated emotional responses to the still-face paradigm in 7-month-old preterm and full-term black infants. Baby FACS criteria were used to code the duration and intensity of infant smiles and the presence or absence of cry faces and fussy vocalizations within each episode. Infants in both groups showed the still-face effect: a significant reduction in smiling from episode 1 (baseline) to episode 2 (maternal still-face) and partial return to baseline in episode 3 (recovery). A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for big smiles yielded significant main effects for group and episode and a significant group episode interaction. Preterm infants spent less time than full-term infants displaying big smiles in episode 1 and a less pronounced decrease in big smiles in episode 2. Maternal depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between groups. Counter to our expectations, depressive symptoms were positively associated with small-to-medium smiles in the baseline episode but not with big smiles in any episode. These findings confirm the robustness of the still-face paradigm and its potential usefulness for research on individual as well as group differences in affective communication in infants.