Intentions make a difference

Author(s)
Maria Legerstee, Gabriela Markova
Abstract

In two studies, 3-, 6- and 9-month-old infants interacted with their mothers during natural, still-face, and modified still-face (i.e., mothers wearing a mask, or drinking from bottle) conditions. Infants were also presented with matching doll conditions to control for the possibility that their responses might be due to changes in superficial perceptual features. Regardless of age, infants displayed negative affect to the still-face, but, in contrast to recent reports, not to the modified still-face conditions. However, whereas infants' positive affect also depended on their mothers' communicative intentions, these responses changed with cognitive maturation. As expected, infant responses to their mothers were significantly different from those to the doll. The implications of these findings for theories of communication are discussed.

Organisation(s)
External organisation(s)
York University
Journal
Infant Behavior and Development
Volume
30
Pages
232-250
No. of pages
19
ISSN
0163-6383
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.02.008
Publication date
2007
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501005 Developmental psychology
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4dba7708-f063-47d9-b9fa-9b076453fa14