Pupillometry in Infancy Research

The human pupil is a small opening in each eye that dilates in response not only to changes in luminance, but also to novel events. Therefore, changes in pupil diameter are an attractive measure in studies on infants’ and young children’s physical and social cognition. However, designing and interpreting pupillometry studies for developmental populations come with caveats. Here we give an overview of how psychologically induced changes in pupil diameter have been investigated and interpreted in developmental studies. We highlight the methodological challenges when designing experiments for infants and young children and provide several suggestions to address common problems. The fact that pupillometry provides a sensitive measure of the time course of responses to novelty extends the scope of possibilities for researchers studying infant cognition and development.     

Coyness in Early Infancy

The present exploratory study reports the presence of ‘coy’ smiles beginning at 2‐3 months in infancy, consisting of smiling with simultaneous gaze and head aversion and curving arm movements. Five infants were video‐taped in natural interaction in their homes once a week between 7 and 20 weeks of age. These smiles were elicited in contexts of social attention, and were more likely following the renewed onset of attention. They occurred in interaction with familiar adults, with strangers and with the self in a mirror. Such expressions have previously only been reported in adults and in toddlers in the second year and have been interpreted as self‐conscious emotional reactions deriving from newly developing self‐conscious cognitions. The morphological and functional similarities between these early expressions and those reported in toddlers and adults suggest a developmental continuity in these reactions.     

Origins of Self-Perception in Infancy

Most accounts of the origins of the self-concept in humans rely on the mirror self-recognition (rouge removal) task whereby the infant is credited with self-awareness at about 15 months, once it is able to use the mirror reflection to locate a dab of rouge on the nose. But mirror self- recognition may require relatively advanced cognitive abilities and may reveal relatively little about the ontogenetic origins of self-knowledge. The aim of this article is to consider the antecedents of self-knowledge in processes of sensory perception during infancy. J. J. Gibson' s ecological approach to sensory perception asserts that there is information for the distinction between self and nonself inherent in perception. Evidence from human infants who are too young to recognize themselves in mirrors is reviewed for a sensory perceptual basis for the existential self (the I) and for the categorical self (the me) in William James' s terminology. Studies of the visual proprioceptive control of posture in babies may be interpreted to support an inherent distinction between self and nonself in infantperception, rather than the traditional account of an "adualistic confusion." Similarly, various aspects of bodily self-awareness manifested even by fetuses demonstrate some basis for a categorical self as an original aspect of experience. Self-specification in perception is also indicated in recent research on imitation in very young infants, a possible mechanism for the essentially social component of self-concept development. Although a case for early self-specification in perception can readily be made, it is much more difficult to explain how self-perception gives rise to self-conception. One possibility briefly discussed is that a process of representation and re-representation of information originally obtained through interaction with physical and social objects gives rise to reflective self- awareness and the particularly autobiographical knowledge of self which we take to be species- typical of humans.     

Development of Visual Self-Recognition in Infancy

This research investigated the development of visual self-recognition in infancy. Prior research has investigated infants' self-perception in mirror or live video stimulation in which visual-proprioceptive contingency is available. No research, however, has addressed the young infants' ability to recognize his or her own face on the basis of featural information. Infants of 2, 3, 5, and 8 months of age viewed video films of their own face side by side with that of a peer. The faces were presented under both moving and still conditions. Results indicated that by the age of 3 months, infants discriminated the self from the peer and demonstrated a significant visual preference for the face of the peer. This suggests that infants already are familiar with their own visual appearance by 3 months of age. Given that most infants had received at least daily exposure to their mirror image, it was hypothesized that featural recognition of the self developed through mirror exposure. It was further suggested that viewing one's face in the context of the contingency provided by the mirror serves as a basis for perceiving the face as belonging to the self.     

Exploring the Relation Between Memory, Gestural Communication, and the Emergence of Language in Infancy: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between recall memory, visual recognition memory, social communication, and the emergence of language skills was measured in a longitudinal study. Thirty typically developing Swedish children were tested at 6, 9 and 14 months. The result showed that, in combination, visual recognition memory at 6 months, deferred imitation at 9 months and turn-taking skills at 14 months could explain 41% of the variance in the infants' production of communicative gestures as measured by a Swedish variant of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). In this statistical model, deferred imitation stood out as the strongest predictor.     

Recall in Infancy: A Neurodevelopmental Account

ABSTRACT— Relations between developments in neural structures and changes in memory in infancy are a relatively recent focus of research. Greater knowledge about brain development, as well as methodological advances such as combined use of behavioral and electrophysiological techniques, have led to the generation and testing of specific hypotheses regarding sources of age-related change. Theory and data converge to suggest that the early-stage processes of encoding and consolidation are a significant source of age-related variability in memory early in life. Additional research is needed to determine how these processes change and interact with myriad other determinants of recall.     

Face Perception During Early Infancy

Previous studies of face perception during early infancy are difficult to interpret because of discrepant results and procedural differences. We used a standardized method based on the Teller acuity card procedure to test newborns, 6-week-olds, and 12-week-olds with three pairs of face and nonface stimuli modified from previous studies. Newborns' preferences were influenced both by the visibility of the stimuli and by their resemblance to a human face. There appears to be a mechanism, likely subcortical, predisposing newborns to look toward faces. Changes in preferences at 6 and 12 weeks of age suggest increasing cortical influence over infants' preferences for faces.     

Hemisphere Specialization as an Aid in Early Infancy

In order that different directions of attention can be organized, they have to be labeled and assessed. A statement of a general problem can be regarded as a label for a general direction of attention. Hope about it, as the perceived probability of sufficient success, on the basis of work done, can be regarded as an assessment. It can be argued that a young infant meets an impasse arising from the work on 2 incompatible general problems, (1) that of raising hope of certainty about the environment (linked to the arousal system because repeated stimulation has less effect), and (2) that of raising hope of producing effects (linked to the activation system because here some effect must be produced before activity can cease). A certainty–right hypothesis, that the right hemisphere deals with the certainty problem and the left deals with the producing-effects problem, and hence keeps work on the two problems apart in early infancy while the corpus callosum is undeveloped, and that a matching specialization continues in later life, is supported.     

婴儿视觉自我认知的微观发生研究

本研究采用微观发生设计,对大连市15名婴儿在15个月时用摄像追踪观察至23个月,每周观察一次.目的在于探讨婴儿视觉自我认知的具体发生时间和个体差异,以及视觉自我认知各指标的发生顺序.结果表明:(1)婴儿视觉自我认知在15～23个月间发生,随年龄增长而提高;(2)婴儿视觉自我认知一般发生于17.25个月;(3)视觉自我认知并非突然出现,而是从不稳定到稳定的渐进发展过程,在发生过程中存在个体差异;(4)视觉自我认知各指标相继发生,镜像自我认知是视觉自我认知最早出现的标志,随后是客体定向能力、照片自我认知.     

Object Size as a Determinant of Grasping in Infancy

The early development and patterns of development of prehensile ability were examined. Infants 5, 7, and 9 months old were presented five objects, 0.5, 1.0, 3.5, 7.0, and 14.0 cm in diameter. The findings revealed that infants as young as 5 months old were able to differentiate grip configurations as a function of object size. The number of grasps involving the two or three most radial digits (thumb, index finger, and long finger) increased greatly over this age span. At 9 months of age these kinds of grasps were 10 times more frequent than at 5 months of age. However, at each age level, when only the two or three most radial digits were used, the reaches were typically directed at the two smallest objects. These findings suggest that it was not a perceptual problem that the younger infants were facing, nor was the problem knowing when to use different kinds of grasps; rather, the problem was one of cortico-motoneural connections, which are better established in older infants. The findings also suggest that traditionally described sequential development of infants' prehension is rigid and conservative. The discrepancy with earlier results may also be attributed to the difference in the objects' sizes and the way they were presented.     

心理理论的自发反应范式：方法、结果与解释

近30年来, 心理理论一直是认知发展领域关键而充满挑战的研究主题, 儿童理解他人错误信念的能力是心理理论发展的标志。诱导反应范式(elicited-response tasks)的研究结果表明4岁时儿童获得心理理论, 但是自发反应范式(spontaneous-response tasks)的研究结果表明婴儿15个月大时就已经具备心理理论。自发反应范式(spontaneous-response task) 是近些年来心理理论研究领域发展起来的研究范式。针对幼儿能通过自发反应范式却不能通过诱导反应范式这一问题, 已有三种相关的理论解释：早期能力掩盖说、内隐知识解释论和观点追踪解释论。未来心理理论研究应注意将自发反应范式运用于特殊儿童, 并进一步验证和研究心理理论的发展机制。     

婴儿自我认知发生再探

文章在纵向研究基础上,通过横向设计,采用实验室实验、情境观察和母亲访谈相结合的方法考察213名14～24个月婴儿自我认知(视觉和言语方面)的发生.结果表明:1)婴儿自我认知在15～24个月间发生,自我认知能力逐渐出现,随年龄增长而发展.2)视觉自我认知一般发生于第17个月;视觉自我认知无显著的性别差异.3)言语自我认知一般发生于第21个月;男婴言语自我认知获得时间晚于女婴,但在获得言语自我认知后,婴儿言语自我认知无性别差异.4)视觉自我认知对言语自我认知有正向预测作用,视觉自我认知发生早的婴儿,言语自我认知发生的也早.     

Withdrawal From Coparenting Interactions During Early Infancy

This study examines early withdrawal in the coparenting system, and the utility of a brief problem‐solving discussion about coparenting responsibilities as a means for evaluating such withdrawal. One hundred and fifteen couples were evaluated both prenatally and at 3 months postpartum. During prenatal assessments, parents rated their personalities and completed marital assessments. After the baby arrived, they completed a negotiation task in which they discussed disputes about parenting roles and responsibilities, and interacted together with the baby in a triadic play assessment. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was associated with greater disengagement and less warmth during triadic play and with fathers' feelings that mothers did not respect their parenting. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was also forecast by low ego resilience and by an increase in depressive symptomatology during the postpartum. As the negotiation task appeared to be an effective provocateur of withdrawal when confronting coparenting disagreement, it may prove useful for eliciting this aspect of coparental process in work with couples.     

Family Alliance in Infancy and Toddlerhood Predicts Social Cognition in Adolescence

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Infants developing in a cooperative family alliance (FA), characterized by cohesion and mutual support between family members observable during...     

Inferring Social Disposition by Sound and Surface Appearance in Infancy

Adults automatically infer a person’s social disposition and future behavior based on the many properties they observe about how they look and sound. The goal of the current study is to explore the developmental origins of this bias. We tested whether 12-month-old infants automatically infer a character’s social disposition (e.g., whether they are likely to “help” or “hinder” another character’s goal) based on the sounds and visual features those characters display. Infants were habituated to 2 characters, 1 that possessed more positive properties (e.g., a soft, fluffy appearance and a happy-sounding laugh) or more negative properties (e.g., a sharp, pointy appearance and a deep, ominous laugh). During test trials, we observed that infants looked longer at events that involved characters engaging in social actions toward another that were inconsistent rather than consistent with the valence of how they looked and sounded during habituation. Two control conditions support the interpretation that infants’ responses were based on an inferred causal relationship between a character’s features and its disposition rather than on some noncausal associations between the positive and negative valences of the characteristics and actions. Together, these studies suggest that infants are biased to connect an agent’s audiovisual features to their social behavior.