The role of maternal affect mirroring on social expectancies in three-month-old infants.

The role of maternal affect mirroring on the development of prosocial behaviors and social expectancies was assessed in forty-one 2- to 3-month-old infants. Prosocial behavior was characterized as infants' positive behavior and increased attention toward their mothers. Social expectancies were defined as infants' expectancy for affective sharing. Mothers and infants were observed twice, approximately 1 week apart. During Visit 1, mothers and infants were videotaped while interacting over television monitors for 3 min. During Visit 2, infants engaged in a live, 3-min interaction with their mothers over television monitors (live condition) and they also viewed a replay of their mothers' interaction from the preceding week (replay condition). The order of conditions was counterbalanced. Maternal affect mirroring was measured according to the level of attention maintenance, warm sensitivity, and social responsiveness displayed. A natural split was observed with 58% of the mothers ranking high and 42% ranking low on these affect mirroring measures (HAM and LAM, respectively). Infants in the HAM group ranked high on prosocial behaviors and social expectancy--they discriminated between live and replay, conditions with smiles, vocalizations, and gazes. Infants in the LAM group ranked low on these variables--they gazed longer during the live condition than during the replay condition, but only when the live condition was presented first; however, they did not smile or vocalize more. These findings indicate that there is a relation between affect mirroring and social expectancies in infants.

Five- and eight-month-old infants recognize their faces and voices as familiar and social stimuli.

Five- and 8-month-old infants were presented with silent moving and static video images of self, peer, and doll and with sounds of self, peer, and nonsocial objects. In the visual conditions, infants at both ages showed a significant looking preference to peer over self when the faces were moving. When the faces were static, older infants showed the same significant discriminations, but the younger infants showed a significant looking preference for their own faces over peer and doll. These data suggest that recognition of one's own image develops through experience with dynamic facial stimulation during the first 8 months of life. In the auditory conditions, infants at both ages showed significant looking preferences for sounds of peer over self or nonsocial objects. In general, infants of both ages smiled and produced more vocalizations to social faces and social sounds than to nonsocial faces and nonsocial sounds. Thus, at 5 months infants treat their faces and voices as familiar and social stimuli. The findings forge important links among studies of self-perception, self-recognition, and social knowledge.

The role of person and object in eliciting early imitation.

The role of person and object in eliciting early imitation was examined in this study. Twenty-seven infants, between 5 and 8 weeks old were assigned randomly to two conditions. In the person condition (N = 12) they were presented with tongue protrusions and mouth openings modeled by an adult, whereas in the object condition (N = 15) they were presented with these gestures simulated by two objects. Two infant behaviors were coded; mouth openings and tongue protrusions. Infants in the person condition selectively reproduced the mouth open and tongue protrusion gestures at significant levels, infants in the object condition did not. Instead of reproducing the congruent gestures (mouth openings and tongue protrusions when they were modeled) infants in the object condition reproduced the incongruent gestures at significant levels. Together, the findings indicate that imitation is a social response, which has implications for the development of nonverbal communication and speech.

Hand, arm, and facial actions of young infants to a social and nonsocial stimulus.

Do 9-15-week-old infants produce differentially organized hand and arm actions in relation to affective states when presented with social and nonsocial stimuli? This question was examined by observing 8 infants longitudinally. They were observed when facing their active and passive mother and an active and passive doll during 4 visits at biweekly intervals. Videotapes were coded in real time using the following measures: Vocalization, Gaze, and Gaze Avert; for face, Smiling, Distressed, and Neutral; for hands, Pointing, Open, Curled, and Closed; and for arms, Extended and At Side. Co-occurrence and lag sequential analyses showed that hand actions were organized with other infant actions to form unique behavioral linkages in each of the 4 conditions. The implications of these findings for the development of nonverbal communication are discussed.