title: Social contingency effects on subsequent perceptual-cognitive tasks in young infants.
abstract: 3 experiments with 3-month-old infants compared the effects of contingent and noncontingent adult-infant social interactions on subsequent infant-controlled habituation and choice tasks. Infants who experienced a prior noncontingent social interaction tended to adopt response strategies that reduced the density of stimulation during these subsequent nonsocial tasks. The results are discussed in terms of their generality and the types of mechanisms that might mediate these transfer effects from social to nonsocial procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dunham
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dunham
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hurshman
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alexander
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010553:Personality Development; D010865:Pilot Projects; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012056:Reinforcement, Social; D012919:Social Behavior