Sensitivity to social contingencies between 1 and 3 months of age.
Infants' sensitivity to social contingencies was assessed. In Study 1, 1-month-old infants and their mothers interacted face-to-face in three types of imperfect contingent interactions: Normal, Non-Contingent and Imitation. One-month-old infants did not discriminate these conditions. In Study 2, 3-month-old infants were tested as in Study 1. At 3 months of age, infants gazed reliably longer in the Imitation condition and smiled reliably more in the Normal than in the Non-Contingent and Imitation interactions. These findings suggest a developmental transition in the sensitivity to social contingencies between 1 and 3 months of age. The relationship between the developing sensitivity to social contingencies and social cognition is discussed.
Striano
Tricia
T
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Cultural Ontogeny, Leipzig, Germany. striano@cbs.mpg.de
Henning
Anne
A
Stahl
Daniel
D
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D012931:Social Environment; D014741:Video Recording