Generalized imitation within three response classes in typically developing infants

Effects of modeling and contingent praise on infant imitation of three different responses was analyzed. Generalization to nonreinforced probe models was assessed both within and across response types. Three 12- to 14-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this study. During baseline the mothers provided models only. During treatment mothers modeled and also praised contingent upon infant matching of the training models. During interspersed probe trials the mothers modeled different responses, which, if matched by the infant, produced no praise. The three responses modeled were motor-with-toy, motor-without-toy, and vocal responses. The dependent measure was the percentage of maternal models that were matched by the infant within 6 s. Nonmatching responses of the same response type were also measured. Results showed a systematic increase in the percentages of training and probe models matched by the three infants following the introduction of the model-and-praise treatment condition. Nonmatching responses did not systematically increase. Thus, imitation generalized within response class, but not across response classes.     

Effects of maternal inattentiveness on infant social referencing

The aim of the study was to clarify the meaning of infant looking behaviour when the infant is confronted with an ambiguous situation in order to disentangle the two processes social referencing and attachment. Ninety‐six 12‐month‐olds, presented with an ambiguous or an unambiguous toy, were assigned to one of four conditions; mother inattentive, mother conveyed positive information, and mother conveyed negative information about the ambiguous toy. In the fourth condition (control condition), an unambiguous toy was presented (mother inattentive). The ambiguous situation elicited more referencing looks than the unambiguous situation. During the presentation of the ambiguous toy, infants with inattentive mothers referenced the experimenter more than infants whose mothers provided guidance. In the following free‐play situation, infants in the inattentive group referenced mother to a higher degree than did the other infants. They played less with the toy than infants who had received positive information and infants in the control group, and were less eager to explore the surroundings than infants in the other three groups. When mother turned attentive the infants ceased referencing her and showed an interest in exploring. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infant behavioral responses to infant-directed singing and other maternal interactions

Seventy, 6-9-month-old infants were videotaped during six interactions: mother sings assigned song, "stranger" sings assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and mother and infant listen to recorded music. Infant-directed (ID) singing conditions elicited moderately positive cognitive behavior, low levels of positive physical behavior and minimal amounts of vocal behaviors, mostly negative. Across all conditions, cognitive scores remained positive at low to moderate levels. Physical responses were most positive during book and toy, most negative during recorded music, and differed by gender, especially during ID singing. Vocally, infants responded positively to toy, and 8-month-old infants vocalized more than younger infants, particularly during ID singing conditions. ID singing appears just as effective as book reading or toy play in sustaining infant attention and far more effective than listening to recorded music, while interactions involving objects may provide opportunity for shared attention.     

Effects of prompting and reinforcement of one response pattern upon imitation of a different modeled pattern

Twelve preschool children participated in a study of the effects of explicit training on the imitation of modeled behavior. The responses trained involved a marble-dropping pattern that differed from the modeled pattern. Training consisted of physical prompts and verbal praise during a single session. No prompts or praise were used during test periods. After operant levels of the experimental responses were measured, training either preceded or was interposed within a series of exposures to modeled behavior that differed from the trained behavior. Children who were initially exposed to a modeling session immediately imitated, whereas those children who were initially trained immediately performed the appropriate response. Children initially trained on one pattern generally continued to exhibit that pattern even after many modeling sessions. Children who first viewed the modeled response and then were exposed to explicit training of a different response reversed their response pattern from the trained response to the modeled response within a few sessions. The results suggest that under certain conditions explicit training will exert greater control over responding than immediate modeling stimuli.     

Maternal responsiveness and search for hidden objects and contingency learning by infants

The relationship between maternal responsiveness and infant cognition was examined during two activities: the search for hidden objects and the learning of a contingency rule. Thirty-four mother–infant dyads were observed in a laboratory setting when the infants were 11 months old. The experimental session included three phases: a search for hidden objects (Piagetian tasks), the learning of a contingency rule on a touch screen, and a mother–infant play session using a standardised toy. The results indicated a link between performances in the search and contingency tasks. Moreover, infants who succeeded in both tasks had mothers who displayed higher responsiveness score. The findings are discussed in terms of the infant's detection of relevant stimulus information. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of prenatal serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressant exposure and maternal mood on mother–infant interactions at 3 months of age

Exposure to maternal depression increases risks for altered mother–infant interactions. Serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants are increasingly prescribed to manage antenatal maternal illness. The impact of SRIs on early mother–infant interactions was unknown. Three-month-old infants of 32 depressed mothers treated with SRI medications during pregnancy and 43 non-medicated mothers were studied. Using an established face-to-face mother–infant interaction paradigm, dyad interactions were studied with and without a toy. Videotaped sessions yielded 4 measures: maternal sensitivity, dyadic organization, infant readiness to interact, and maternal interruptive behaviors. Even with prenatal SRI treatment, depressed mothers interrupted their infants more during toy play. In the absence of prenatal SRI treatment, maternal postnatal depression adversely influenced infant behavior. Higher levels of maternal depression symptoms at 3 months predicted poorer infant readiness to interact during the toy session. Conversely, in the SRI-exposed group, higher prenatal depression scores predicted greater infant readiness to interact at 3 months. Increased infant readiness with SRI exposure suggests a “fetal programming effect” whereby prenatal maternal mood disturbances shaped a future response to a postnatal depressed maternal environment.     

Effects of adults’ contingent responding on infants’ behavior in ambiguous situations

We examined the effect of adults’ contingency in responding to infants’ behavior in an ambiguous situation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, forty-four 12-month-old infants were exposed to an ambiguous toy. An unfamiliar adult responded either contingently or non-contingently to the infant’s bids and then presented the toy and provided positive information. During toy presentation, infants in the non-contingent condition looked less at the experimenter than infants in the contingent condition. In a concluding free-play situation infants in the non-contingent condition played less and tended to touch the toy less. In Experiment 2 (forty-four 12-month-old infants), the parent either responded promptly or with a delay each time the infant made contact initiatives and then presented an ambiguous toy and delivered the positive information. The infants in the non-contingent condition tended to look less at the parent during toy presentation and also tended to play less with the toy during the concluding free-play situation. The findings show that adults’ contingency in responding influences infants’ behavior in ambiguous situations.     

An experimental study on mother-infant skin-to-skin contact in full-terms

In premature infants, daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) has various beneficial effects on the health of the infant and the mother. These beneficial effects might extend to full-term infants. This experimental within-subject study examines the immediate effects of SSC on full-terms’ cortisol physiology during SSC and subsequent physiological and behavioral reactions to a mild stressor (a bathing session). Additionally, the effects of SSC on the quality of maternal behavior are examined.Between 5 and 7 weeks postpartum, 17 full-term infant-mother dyads were visited at home twice. During one home visit, a bathing session was proceeded by 50 min of mother-infant SSC, while during the other visit the bathing session was proceeded by 50 min of the infant resting alone. The order of the home visits was counterbalanced. Infant salivary cortisol measures were taken to measure the cortisol response to the experimental condition (SSC versus solitary resting) and the bathing session. Furthermore, infant behavioral distress and the quality of maternal behavior during the bathing session were scored from videotapes.Two-way within-subject repeated measures ANOVA’s showed that, when compared to solitary resting, full-terms’ cortisol concentrations significantly decreased during SSC, followed by higher cortisol reactivity in response to the subsequent bathing session. No effects of SSC on infant behavioral distress and maternal caregiving behavior were found. Apparently, a single session of mother-infant SSC can affect infant cortisol physiology in full-term infants. Future SSC research is needed to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms and dose-response relations in full-term infants.     

Developmental changes in infants' sensitivity to octave-band noises

Localization responses to octave-band noises with center frequencies at 200, 400, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 10,000 Hz were obtained from infants 6, 12, and 18 months of age. During an experimental trial, an octave-band noise was presented on one of two speakers located 45° to each side of the infant. A head turn to the noise (correct response) was rewarded by activating an animated toy on top of the speaker. The intensity of the noise was varied over trials (method of constant stimuli) to determine thresholds at each center frequency. Thresholds for the lower frequencies were approximately 5–8 db higher in the 6-month-old infants compared to the older infants. However, there were no consistent differences among groups at the higher frequencies. Infant thresholds were found to be 20–30 db higher than adult thresholds at the lower frequencies. At the higher frequencies thresholds for infants were approaching those of adults.     

TRAINING AND GENERALIZATION OF AFFECTIVE BEHAVIOR DISPLAYED BY YOUTH WITH AUTISM

The purpose of this study was to teach contextually appropriate affective behavior to 4 youths with autism. Treatment consisted of modeling, prompting, and reinforcement introduced in a multiple baseline design across response categories of affective behavior. During treatment, verbal praise and tokens were delivered contingent on appropriate affective responding during training trials. Modeling and verbal prompting were used as correction procedures. Each youth received treatment in either three or four response categories. Treatment systematically increased responding within the response categories for all 4 participants, with effects being specific to the affective response categories under treatment. Treatment effects occurred across untrained scenarios, therapists, time, and settings, suggesting that generalization had occurred.     

Preterm infants' affective responses in independent versus toy-centered play with their mothers

The affective behavior of medically high-risk (HR) and low-risk (LR) infants, along with a control group of full-terms (FT), was compared at 6 months of age during a 5-minute independent and a 5-minute toy-centered play session with their mothers. Because previous research has shown that joint toy play places a burden on the attentional capacities of HR infants, it was predicted that they would show less positive affect and more negative affect in toy-centered (vs. independent) play and joint attention (vs. face-to-face) interactions than would the LR or FT infants. Results showed that the HR infants displayed fewer smiles across the independent and mother toy-centered play condition and across face-to-face and joint attention interactions than LR or FT infants. The findings also indicated that the mother's presence facilitated the expression of positive affect for all three infant groups.     

Taking stress response out of the box: stability, discontinuity, and temperament effects on HPA and SNS across social stressors in mother-infant dyads

This study investigated continuity and stability of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) response measures in mother-infant dyads across 2 different types of social stress sessions. Synchrony of response trajectories across systems (SNS-HPA coordination) and partners (mother-infant attunement) was addressed, as were associations with infant temperament. Primiparous mothers and their 18-month-old infants (n = 86 dyads) completed an attachment stressor--Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978)--at Session 1 and challenge stressors--cleanup task and emotion task battery--at Session 2. Mother and infant saliva samples collected to index pre-stress, stress, and post-stress response during each session were assayed for cortisol (HPA marker) and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA; SNS marker). Multilevel modeling of cortisol/sAA trajectories across sessions revealed rank-order stability in mother/infant stress measures but discontinuity in absolute levels; cortisol trajectories were higher during attachment stress, and sAA trajectories were higher during challenge stress. Varying degrees of mother-infant attunement were found across sessions/systems. Infant surgency predicted higher stress measures, and negative affect and effortful control predicted lower stress measures, though associations depended on session/system. Findings are discussed in terms of advancing a multisystemic, contextual definition of developing stress responsiveness.     

Maternal accommodation in infant-directed speech during mother's and twin-infants' vocal interactions

In this study a mother's instinctive accommodations of vocal fundamental frequency (f0) of infant-directed speech to two different infants was explored. Maternal speech directed to individual 3-mo.-old fraternal twin-infants was subjected to acoustic analysis. Natural samples of infant-directed speech were recorded at home. There were differences in the rate of infants' vocal responses. The mother changed her f0 and patterns of intonation contour when she spoke to each infant. When she spoke to the infant whose vocal response was less frequent than the other infant, she used a higher mean f0 and a rising intonation contour more than when she spoke to the other infant. The result suggested that the mother's speech characteristic is not inflexible and that the mother may use a higher f0 and rising contour as a strategy to elicit an infant's less frequent vocal response.     

Joint attention and object learning in 5‐ and 7‐month‐old infants

We examined the effects of joint attention for object learning in 5‐ and 7‐month‐old infants. Infants interacted with an adult social partner who taught them about a novel toy in two conditions. In the Joint Attention condition, the adult spoke about the toy while alternating gaze between the infant and the toy, while in the Object Only condition, the adult looked to the toy and to a spot on the ceiling, but never at the infant. In the test trials following each social interaction, we presented infants with the ‘familiarization’ toy and a novel toy, and monitored looking times to each object. We found that 7‐month‐olds looked significantly longer to the novel toy following the Joint Attention relative to the Object Only condition, while 5‐month‐old infants did not show a significant difference across conditions. We interpret these results to suggest that joint attention facilitated 7‐month‐old infants' encoding of information about the familiarization object. Implications for the ontogeny of infant learning in joint attention contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behaviorism Och Marxism - Ett Omaka Par

Six moderately retarded 1 adults with undesirable behaviours such as noncompliance and physical aggression were taught more appropriate responses with a social learning package. Training consisted of seven daily "report card" measures checked plus (did not occcur) or minus (did occur) for each target behaviour. Instructions and feedback were provided after every training session by staff as was praise for appropriate behaviour. Short periods of social isolation were used after daily training when a minus was reported in any training period that day. During treatment, 21 of 22 target behaviours decreased in frequency. Seven months after treatment, 20 target behaviours were still well below baseline levels.     

Association between Hyperemesis Gravidarum in pregnancy on postnatal ability of infants to attend to a play task with their mother

Research indicates a higher prevalence of attention deficits in children exposed to HG in utero compared to controls with some claiming that the deficit is due to prenatal effects of malnutrition in HG mothers and others that it is due to maternal mental health after birth. The current study examines the effect of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) diagnosis during pregnancy on infant attention controlling for maternal stress, depression anxiety and attachment. Thirty-eight infants mean age 4 months were videotaped with their mothers (19 mothers with a hyperemesis diagnosis and 19 controls) during play with a soft toy and looking at a picture book. Infant attention was operationalized as gaze direction towards the play activity, mother, and ‘distracted’ (indicated by looking away from play or mother). Mothers completed stress, depression, anxiety, and attachment questionnaires. HG exposed infants attended for significantly less time during play with a book or soft toy compared to controls. Maternal stress, depression, anxiety, and attachment did not differ in HG mothers and controls. Infant ability to attend to the toy, book, mother or being distracted did not relate to maternal postnatal attachment, or mental health. These results suggest that the prenatal environment, especially exposure to HG might be associated with reduced infant attention abilities independent of maternal postnatal health.     

TWO-TO-ONE versus ONE-TO-ONE STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS IN THE OPERANT VERBAL TRAINING OF RETARDED CHILDREN1

The operant training of two retarded children simultaneously on a picture-naming task was investigated as an alternative to the more commonly reported one-to-one student-teacher ratio. In Experiment I, two conditions were compared in which the children received primary reinforcement on a fixed-ratio schedule for responding correctly on prompt and probe trials in a standardized picture-naming procedure. During the “Group Condition”, the experimenter alternated from one child to the other after each primary reinforcement, after each incorrect response, after each response omission, and after each 10-sec period in which a child did not “attend” (by making a trial-initiating response) when it was his or her turn to be worked with. During the “Individual Condition”, the experimenter worked with only one child, and presented trials whenever the child made attending responses. Experiment I demonstrated that the Group Condition was more efficient than the Individual Condition in terms of total correct responses and total pictures learned per unit of training time. Incidental learning was also found in that the children learned some of each others' pictures as well as their own, thus indicating a further advantage of the larger student-teacher ratio. In Experiment II, an attempt was made to equate the two conditions, except for the presence of two children in the Group Condition, by ignoring the child in the Individual Condition for brief periods equal to those that occurred in the Group Condition when the experimenter presented training trials to the other child. The results demonstrated that the greater efficiency of the Group Condition was not due to the manner in which training time was allocated to the two members of a group. It also replicated the finding that the children learned some of each others' words in the Group Condition.     

Gaze direction and maternal pitch in surprise-eliciting situations

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that not only do babies use emotional signals from adults in order to relate emotions to specific situations (e.g., Campos & Stenberg, 1981) but also that mothers seek out emotional information from their infants ( Emde, 1992). Three groups of mothers and their infants, 3, 5 and 9 months old were video- and audio-taped, while playing in their homes with a soft toy and a remote-control Jack-in-the-box. During surprise-eliciting play with the Jack-in-the-box, maternal and infant gaze direction and their emotional expressions of surprise, pleasure, fear and neutral expressions were coded in three regions of the face. In addition, the mean fundamental frequency of maternal surprise-vocalisations was analysed. Maternal exclamations of surprise were compared with similar utterances of these mothers while playing with a soft toy as a baseline. During the surprise event, maternal and infant gaze directions as well as infant age were analysed in relation to maternal pitch. Results are discussed in terms of maternal use of the pitch of her voice to mark surprising situations, depending on the gaze-direction of the infant.     

Emotional expressions of female and male infants in a social and a nonsocial context

While observational studies of the emotional expressions of women and men have revealed several consistent patterns of gender differences, data pertaining to the emotional expressions of male and female infants are largely inconsistent. Attempting to trace the course of early emotional development in female and male infants, we undertook to compare the emotional expressions of boys and girls at 2 1/2 and 5 months of age in a variety of situations. All infants who participated in the study were from French-speaking Caucasian families of low and middle class. At each age level, infants were observed in a social and nonsocial situation. The social situation began with a mother—infant interaction, followed by a period during which the mother remained silent and still-faced. In the nonsocial situation, a mobile was presented and then removed. Infants' facial expressions were coded using the AFFEX system. Direction of gaze was also coded. Overall, boys' and girls' reactions were quite similar. At both ages, male and female infants spent more time looking at the toy than at their mother and showed more expressions of interest toward the toy. They also smiled more while interacting with their mother and displayed more negative expressions when facing their still-faced mother. One gender difference was found: At 2 1/2 months, girls smiled more than boys while interacting with their mother. Several explanations are proposed to account for these findings.