Beyond U-Shaped Development in Infants' Processing of Faces: An Information-Processing Account

The development of the "inversion" effect in face processing was examined in infants 3 to 6 months of age by testing their integration of the internal and external features of upright and inverted faces using a variation of the "switch" visual habituation paradigm. When combined with previous findings showing that 7-month-olds use integrative processing of an upright face, but featural processing of an inverted face (Cohen & Cashon, 2001a), the present findings suggest that from 3 to 7 months, infants' ability to integrate facial features follows an N-shaped developmental pattern for upright faces and an inverted U-shaped pattern for inverted faces. We discuss these results in terms of a set of domain-general information-processing principles.     

Knowledge of self,mother, and father in preterm and full-term toddlers

Full-term and preterm toddler's featural knowledge of self, mother, and father was assessed in relation to individual differences in age, attachment status, and cognitive ability. No relation was found between infants' knowledge of self and the predictor variables at 13 months. Different factors, however, were related to infants' knowledge of mothers' and fathers' features. Hierarchical regressions revealed that at 20 months, after controlling for the relation between complexity of knowledge and MDI Bayley scores, full-term infants who were securely attached to their mothers demonstrated more complex knowledge of her than insecurely attached infants or premature Infants' knowledge of self at 20 months and father at both 13 and 20 months was significantly related to attachment status but not term status. These data are discussed in the context of possible differential influences of term status on infant-mother and infant-father interactions.     

Eighteen‐month‐old infants show distinct electrophysiological responses to their own faces

Infants attain the developmental milestone of self‐recognition around 18 to 24 months of age. At 18 months of age, half of the infant population typically shows signs of self‐recognition in the classic mirror test. The current study examined the functional neural correlates of the perception of self in infancy. Eighteen‐month‐old infants observed photographs of their own face, the face of an unfamiliar infant, the face of their caregiver, and the face of an unfamiliar caregiver, while their EEG was registered. The results show that infants show an enhanced response to their own face compared to other faces. The N290, an established face‐selective ERP component in infants, was larger for observation of their own face compared to others’ faces. In addition to the EEG task, the mirror test was administered. Half of the infants in our sample recognized themselves in the mirror. However, there were no differences in the ERP responses between the infants who did and did not recognize themselves in the mirror. This suggests that a distinction between the neural response to self and to others does not necessarily express itself in self‐recognition behavior.     

Association Learning with Own‐ and Other‐race Faces in three‐ and six‐month old infants – A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study assessed 133 Caucasian German infants at 3 and 6 months of age to investigate the influence of own‐race and other‐race faces as visual stimuli on association learning in the visual expectation paradigm (VExP). The study is related to the findings on the other‐race‐effect (ORE) which is said to emerge at 6 months of age. Caucasian faces were used as stimuli of a familiar ethnic category, whereas African faces were used as stimuli of an unfamiliar ethnic category. There was no significant difference between the two stimulus classes in infants' reaction time (RT) to stimulus shifts at 3 months. At 6 months of age, infants' RT decreased significantly in the Caucasian faces condition but not in the African faces condition. These results indicate that the processing of other‐race versus own‐race faces by the age of 6 months, which is also the relevant age for the onset of the ORE, has an important influence on the performance on the VExP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

No evidence for infants’ contingency detection as a precursor of toddlers’ self-recognition

The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between infants’ contingency preference and detection in the first year of life and toddlers’ mirror and video self-recognition in the second and third year of life in a longitudinal study (N = 113). Six- and 9-month-olds’ preference for a noncontingent over a perfect contingent view (contingency preference) and their differentiation between the two views – indicated by longer looking times to either view – (contingency detection) were assessed in two contingency tasks. A mirror-face-recognition task and a mirror-leg-recognition task were conducted at 18 months. A video-face-recognition task and a mirror-leg-recognition task were conducted at 26 months. Results revealed no predictive relationships between infants’ contingency preference and detection in the first year of life and their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror or on a video monitor in the second and third year of life. This finding supports the notion that self-recognition emerges independently from the experience of contingencies (Bischof-Köhler, 1991, 2012). Thus, a representation of the self seems to rely on more than a specific developmental pathway leading from contingency preference and detection to self-recognition.     

A direct comparison of infants' use of featural and spatiotemporal information when individuating objects in a non-occlusion event-monitoring design

A central issue within the field of object individuation concerns the kind of information that infants rely on when they succeed in individuating objects. By means of the violation-of-expectation strategy, the present study reports a comparison of 8.0- and 6.5-month-old infants' use of featural and spatiotemporal information in a new non-occlusion event-monitoring design. Using a mirror setup the memory demands were minimized, because all apparent changes in the unexpected test events took place in full view of the infants. The results indicate that the 8.0- and 6.5-month-old infants individuated objects successfully regardless of whether they were provided with featural or spatiotemporal information. The results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.     

The relation between infants' self/mother knowledge and three attachment categories

The relation between attachment and knowledge of self and mother was assessed in 1-to 2-year-old infants. Infant behavior in the Strange Situation was classified according to three attachment categories: secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant. Infants' featural knowledge was measured by featural recognition, name, possession, and gender. Infants who were securely or resistantly attached had significantly more complex knowledge of mother than self, whereas avoidantly attached infants did not differ in the complexity of knowledge of self and mother. Securely attached infants had more complex self-knowledge than both categories of insecurely attached infants. In contrast, avoidantly attached infants had less complex knowledge of mother than did securely or resistantly attached infants. These data are discussed in the context of how infants' strategies of coping with stress are related to the acquisition of self- and mother-knowledge.     

Video Versus Reality: Infants' Attention and Affective Responses to Video and Live Presentations

Television viewing by infants has become very common, yet relatively little is known about infants' reactions to video compared to live events. We conducted two experiments in order to compare 9- or 10-month-old infants' behavioral reactions to live events and video presentations of those events. In the first experiment, infants' were shown video and live presentations shown consecutively; their affective reactions were consistent, indicating that video conveys meaning and emotional impact even in infancy. However, infants generally looked longer at, reached more to, showed more interest in, and exhibited more fear to the real stimuli. In a second experiment, infants were shown identical live and video events simultaneously; they looked much longer at the live presentations, further confirming that they distinguished live events from video and preferred to watch real events. Implications for infants' television viewing and the use of video images in infancy research are discussed.     

An Intelligence Survey of a Typical Town School

In this study, the authors investigated the relation between early social contingency experiences and infants' competencies to detect nonsocial contingencies. In this study of 87 three-month-old infants, the authors operationalized early social contingencies as prompt, contingent maternal responses and coded microanalytically on the basis of video-recorded mother-infant interactions. The authors assessed competence to detect nonsocial contingencies by 2 methods: (a) the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between the infants' actions (kicking) and nonsocial consequences (mobile moving) and (b) the visual expectation paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between 1 event (a smiley face projected on a screen) that was followed by a 2nd event (a complex picture projected on the other side of the screen). The results showed that early social contingencies are related to the competency to detect nonsocial action-consequence contingencies in the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm.     

See and be seen: Infant–caregiver social looking during locomotor free play

Face‐to‐face interaction between infants and their caregivers is a mainstay of developmental research. However, common laboratory paradigms for studying dyadic interaction oversimplify the act of looking at the partner's face by seating infants and caregivers face to face in stationary positions. In less constrained conditions when both partners are freely mobile, infants and caregivers must move their heads and bodies to look at each other. We hypothesized that face looking and mutual gaze for each member of the dyad would decrease with increased motor costs of looking. To test this hypothesis, 12‐month‐old crawling and walking infants and their parents wore head‐mounted eye trackers to record eye movements of each member of the dyad during locomotor free play in a large toy‐filled playroom. Findings revealed that increased motor costs decreased face looking and mutual gaze: Each partner looked less at the other's face when their own posture or the other's posture required more motor effort to gain visual access to the other's face. Caregivers mirrored infants' posture by spending more time down on the ground when infants were prone, perhaps to facilitate face looking. Infants looked more at toys than at their caregiver's face, but caregivers looked at their infant's face and at toys in equal amounts. Furthermore, infants looked less at toys and faces compared to studies that used stationary tasks, suggesting that the attentional demands differ in an unconstrained locomotor task. Taken together, findings indicate that ever‐changing motor constraints affect real‐life social looking.     

Eye contact and social contingency experiences from 3 to 6 months of age and their relation to the detection of non-social contingencies

This longitudinal study focuses on the development of eye contact and the contingency of maternal reactions to infants' signals from the age of 3 to 6 months. Eighty-seven 3-month-old infants participated in this study. The amount of eye contact and of social contingencies experienced as prompt maternal responses was assessed micro-analytically based on videotaped mother – infant interactions. The ability to detect contingencies in non-social contexts was assessed by a visual expectation paradigm. The general pattern of the results shows decreases in eye contact and increases in contingencies during development, although this general pattern was not shown by all mothers. Furthermore, the results show that increases in the experience of early social contingencies are related to the ability to detect contingencies in the visual expectation task. The unexpected increase in maternal contingencies over time is discussed as reflecting a possible increase in the significance of association learning after the age of 3 months.     

The effects of adults' affective expression and direction of visual gaze on 12‐month‐olds' visual preferences for an object following a 5‐minute, 1‐day,or 1‐month delay

Between 12‐ and 14 months of age infants begin to use another's direction of gaze and affective expression in learning about various objects and events. What is not well understood is how long infants' behaviour towards a previously unfamiliar object continues to be influenced following their participation in circumstances of social referencing. In this experiment, we examined infants' sensitivity to an adult's direction of gaze and their visual preference for one of two objects following a 5‐min, 1‐day, or 1‐month delay. Ninety‐six 12‐month‐olds participated. For half of the infants during habituation (i.e., familiarization), the adults' direction of gaze was directed towards an unfamiliar object (look condition). For the remaining half of the infants during habituation, the adults' direction of gaze was directed away from the unfamiliar object (look‐away condition). All infants were habituated to two events. One event consisted of an adult looking towards (look condition) or away from (look‐away condition) an object while facially and vocally conveying a positive affective expression. The second event consisted of the same adult looking towards or away from a different object while conveying a disgusted affective expression. Following the habituation phase and a 5‐min, 1‐day, or 1‐month delay, infants' visual preference was assessed. During the visual preference phase, infants saw the two objects side by side where the adult conveying the affective expression was not visible. Results of the visual preference phase indicate that infants in the look condition showed a significant preference for object previously paired with the positive affect following a 5‐min and 1‐day delay. No significant visual preference was found in the look condition following a 1‐month delay. No significant preferences were found at any retention interval in the look‐away condition. Results are discussed in terms of early learning, social referencing, and early memory.     

The importance of maternal state of mind regarding attachment and infant age at placement to foster mothers' representations of their foster infants

Previous research has found that foster mother state of mind with respect to attachment and infant age at placement into foster care influence the developing foster mother–foster child relationship (Dozier, Albus, Stovall, & Bates, 2000; Stovall & Dozier, 2000). This study extends prior research by assessing factors related to foster mothers' representations of their foster infants. Participants were 48 foster mother–foster infant dyads in two mid‐Atlantic cities. We expected that foster mothers' states of mind and infant age at placement would be associated with foster mothers' acceptance of infants, commitment to infants, and belief in their influence on infants' development. Consistent with hypotheses, foster mothers' states of mind interacted with infant age at placement in predicting foster mothers' acceptance of their babies, and the extent to which foster mothers believed they could influence their infants' development. Specifically, autonomous foster mothers of babies placed before 12 months of age were more accepting and more likely to believe they could influence their infants' development compared to autonomous foster mothers of babies placed after 12 months of age, a pattern not seen for nonautonomous foster mothers. These results converge with other findings suggesting that timing of placement in foster care, and foster mothers' states of mind, are important to the developing foster mother–child relationship. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Affective matching of odors and facial expressions in infants: shifting patterns between 3 and 7 months

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is a crucial skill for adaptive behavior. Past research suggests that at 5 to 7 months of age, infants look longer to an unfamiliar dynamic angry/happy face which emotionally matches a vocal expression. This suggests that they can match stimulations of distinct modalities on their emotional content. In the present study, olfaction–vision matching abilities were assessed across different age groups (3, 5 and 7 months) using dynamic expressive faces (happy vs. disgusted) and distinct hedonic odor contexts (pleasant, unpleasant and control) in a visual‐preference paradigm. At all ages the infants were biased toward the disgust faces. This visual bias reversed into a bias for smiling faces in the context of the pleasant odor context in the 3‐month‐old infants. In infants aged 5 and 7 months, no effect of the odor context appeared in the present conditions. This study highlights the role of the olfactory context in the modulation of visual behavior toward expressive faces in infants. The influence of olfaction took the form of a contingency effect in 3‐month‐old infants, but later evolved to vanish or to take another form that could not be evidenced in the present study.     

Social pretence with mothers and peers at 15 months

Previous research has shown that adults scaffold and direct early infant social pretend play making it difficult to establish infants' own contribution to pretence. To examine infants' social pretence abilities the present study compared infants' social pretend play in interactions with adults and same-age peers, who have similar socio-cognitive competence. Forty-five 15-month-old infants were observed during free-play interactions with their mother and two same-age, same-gender peers. The frequency and duration of parallel and coordinated social pretence were coded during both interactions. Results showed that while infants played pretence with both social partners, they engaged in more and longer coordinated social pretence with their mothers than with peers. Thus, although competent social partners play an important role in scaffolding complex pretence, infants' own socio-cognitive abilities contribute to the development of social pretence and enable them to pretend play with different partners regardless of their competencies.     

A comparison of dyadic interactions and coping with still‐face in healthy pre‐term and full‐term infants

Pre‐term birth has a significant impact on infants' social and emotional competence, however, little is known about regulatory processes in pre‐term mother‐infant dyads during normal or stressful interactions. The primary goals of this study were to investigate the differences in infant and caregiver interactive behaviour and dyadic coordination of clinically healthy pre‐term compared to full‐term infant‐mother dyads and to examine pre‐term infants' capacity for coping with stress using the face‐to‐face still‐face paradigm (FFSF). Fifty mother‐infant dyads, including 25 pre‐term infants and 25 full‐term infants were videotaped during the FFSF. All infants were 6–9 months of age (corrected for gestational age in the pre‐term group). Infant and maternal socio‐emotional expressivity and self‐regulatory behaviours were coded and measures of dyadic coordination (Matching, Reparation Rate, and Synchrony) were calculated. There were no significant differences in infant and caregiver socio‐emotional behaviours between the two groups and both groups demonstrated the still‐face (SF) effect and the reunion effect. There was a difference in self‐regulatory behaviour. Pre‐term infants were more likely than full‐term infants to use distancing (e.g., by turning away, twisting, or arching) from their mothers during the FFSF. Additionally, during the Reunion episode of the FFSF pre‐term infants showed more social monitoring compared to full‐term infants. Regardless of the birth status, the dyads showed less coordination and a slower rate of reparation during the Reunion episode than during the Play episode. The higher proportion of distancing in the pre‐term group and the increase in social monitoring suggest that even in normal interactions pre‐term infants may experience a higher level of stress and have less capacity for self‐regulation compared to the full‐terms and that pre‐term infants appear to use a compensatory strategy of increased social monitoring to cope with the stress of renegotiating the interaction during Reunion. The findings suggest that pre‐term infants have different regulatory and interactive capacities than full‐term infants.     

Expression of negative affect during face‐to‐face interaction: a double video study of young infants' sensitivity to social contingency

The purpose was to assess infants' sensitivity to social contingency, taking affective state into account, during face‐to‐face interaction with the mother in a double video set‐up. Infants' behaviour during three sequences of live face‐to‐face interaction were compared to two sequences where the interaction between the infant and the mother was set out of phase, by presenting either the infant or the mother with a replay of their partners' behaviour during earlier live interaction. We found a significant negative correlation between the infant's degree of negative affect and the average time of looking at the mother during the live sequences. A median split was calculated to separate the infants into a high‐negative‐affect group and a low‐negative‐affect group on the basis of their emotional responses during the experiment. The low‐negative‐affect infants looked significantly more at their mothers than other foci during the live but not the replay sequences, while the high‐negative‐affect infants did not show this difference. The results suggest that 2–4‐month old infants are able to distinguish between experimental distortion of contingent aspects in live and replay sequences, but that this effect of the replay condition may not be shown by moderate to highly distressed infants. Our findings underline the importance of taking infants' emotional state into account in experiments intended to assess their capacity for intersubjective communication. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cross-sectional study of coordination between infants' gaze and vocalizations towards their mothers

The study aimed at providing more precise information about infants' capacity to coordinate their vocalizations with gaze towards their mothers. A total of 32 infants were observed, four boys and four girls in each of four age groups (4, 6, 8 and 10 months), in an observational setting aimed at minimizing infants' casual looks to their mothers. Videotapes of mother-infant-toy interactions were coded separately for infants' vocalizations and gaze towards their mothers, and the difference between observed and expected cooccurrence of these two communicative behaviours was evaluated by transfromation into z-scores. Results indicate that only at 10 months of age do infants develop the ability to coordinate vocalizations and gazes towards mother. Moreover, more competent subjects show temporal relationships between gaze and vocalizations different from those observed in less competent subjects.     

Infants' responses to mothers' imitative behaviors

Several investigators have suggested that young infants' smiles and vocalizations following their mothers' imitative behaviors might reflect infant recognition that the mother's behavior is imitative or at least contingent. This study investigated whether infants smile and vocalize more frequently subsequent to maternal imitative than non-imitative behavior during both spontaneous and imitative face-to-face interactions. Fourteen 3 1/2-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in these two face-to-face interaction situations. The infants vocalized more frequently during the imitative situation and infant vocalizations plus simultaneous smiling, and vocalizations occurred more often following maternal imitative than non-imitative behavior. Although these data suggest that infant vocalizations and simultaneous smiles and vocalizations may reflect the infants' recognition of maternal imitative behavior, they do not establish definitively that it is the imitation per se vs. the contingency aspect that is recognized by the infant.     

Two-month-olds' attention and affective response to maternal still face: a comparison between term and preterm infants in Taiwan

Maternal still face is a robust experimental procedure designed to examine infants’ sensitivity to social contingency and reactivity to its violation. To extend earlier research on the still-face effect on term infants in Western cultures, the present study compared Taiwanese term and preterm infants’ attention and affective response to and recovery from a modified maternal still-face procedure that used an additional still-face reengagement sequence at 2 months of age (corrected age for preterm infants). Infants’ gaze and facial affect were coded from videos. Results showed that preterm infants were as sensitive as term infants to the interruption to social contingency. Both groups of infants reacted with decreased gaze and positive affect across episodes, together with a decreased latency to gaze aversion and an increased latency to positive affect. Both term and preterm infants also demonstrated a W-shaped pattern of decline-followed-by-recovery in their latency to negative affect. However, compared to term infants, preterm infants became distressed faster and stayed in a negative affective state longer after the first exposure to maternal still face. Effects of prematurity on infant attention and affect regulation were discussed. Implications of preterm infants’ heightened affective negativity to mild stress for intervention studies were also addressed.