Facing the perfect contingency: interactions with the self at 2 and 3 months.
We used a double video Live-Replay-Live procedure to explore self-self interactions in fourteen 9-week-old infants, repeated at 13-weeks with 10 of these infants. Using multiple measures of behavioural response we found that (1) in all cases where age effects held, duration of response was greater at 9- than at 13-weeks, (2) infants' responses differed according to whether or not self-images were Live or Replay, and (3) age and condition interacted to influence infants' responses. At 9 (but not 13) weeks, the two Live conditions correlated with each other but not with the Replay condition on some measures, indicating that infants apprehended the visual-proprioceptive contingency provided by their actions. Also at 9-weeks only, all infants showed reversals in visual attention with evidence for a bi-modal pattern: 8 preferring the Live conditions and 6 the Replay condition. An explanation based on familiarity and increasing disinterest with specific contexts is suggested.
Reddy
Vasudevi
V
Centre for the Study of Emotion, University of Portsmouth, UK. vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk <vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk>
Chisholm
Vivienne
V
Forrester
David
D
Conforti
Monia
M
Maniatopoulou
Dmitra
D
D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D011434:Proprioception; D012649:Self Concept; D014741:Video Recording; D014796:Visual Perception