Quantifies behavioral periodicities or cycles during face-to-face interaction between three- and five-month-old term and preterm infants and their mothers. Compares the temporal organization of social interaction between term and preterm infants. Spectral and cross-spectral techniques showed the existence of periodicities. Differences were found…

Mothers of 48 infants approximately 12 months old displayed either positive or neutral affect while their infants responded to pleasant, ambiguous, or aversive toys. On the first trial maternal affect had no effect; on the second trial, positive maternal affect resulted in more positive infant responses, but only for the ambiguous toy. (Author/RH)

Studied were the responses of infants to new toys presented with either positive, negative, or neutral affective displays by mothers. Responses to stimulus toys were compared with responses to free play toys. Maternal displays influenced responses only to stimulus toys. (PCB)

Results indicated that the more frequently the children studied expressed emotion, the older the age of language achievements; and the more time spent in neutral affect, the younger the age of language achievements. (PCB)

Findings indicated that attachment-related affect may reflect an affect continuum that underlies certain mother- and stranger-directed behaviors in the Strange Situation. However, not all aspects of reunion behavior can be predicted by prior separation reactions. (Author/RH)

The influence of negative affect on the retrieval of information from memory during infancy was investigated in two studies through the use of an operant conditioning paradigm. The procedure used, known as "mobile conjugate reinforcement," involves a free operant task in which an infant is reinforced for footkicking by the movement of an…

Using the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure, a study examined the interrelations between dimensions of emotion and social interactive behaviors to explore the regulatory role of each in mother-infant interaction and how these roles may change in the second year. (HOD)

Mothers from inner-city, poor families with high-risk infants were interviewed when their infants were three months of age concerning sources of support (e.g., fathers, relatives, friends) and types of support received (e.g., goods, services, advice, financial support). Observations of the mother-infant interaction in a free-play setting were also…

Infants who cried in response to a reward shift evidenced no retention of the contingency 1 week later but did have excellent retention at one day. Reactivation treatment alleviated forgetting at three weeks. Results indicate that crying in response to violation of a reward-expectation habit functions as an amnesic agent to produce accelerated…

When mothers of 12 infants 10 weeks of age displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of joy, anger, and sadness, infants responded differently to each expression. Infants' matching responses to maternal affects were only part of complex but predictable behavioral patterns that indicate meaningful affect states and possibly…

A longitudinal study addressed the question of stability of individual expressive behaviors and replicated the basic findings of a cross-sectional study. Subjects were 25 infants for whom videotape records were available of four diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) inocculations scheduled at roughly 2, 4, 6, and 18 months. (Author/RH)

Documents rate, mean duration, and mode of infants' affective displays. Using cross-sequential design, observes infants in their homes from 6 to 18 months playing with their mothers, with peers, and alone. With increasing age, affect rates and vocal modes increased, and mean durations and facial and motoric modes decreased. (Author/BE)

A group of 20 abusive mothers and a group of 20 matched, nonabusive mothers were shown slides depicting infants in seven different emotional states. Abusive mothers were more likely to incorrectly identify specific signals of emotion and to label negative affect as positive. (Author/RH)

Examined were electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetries during the presence of discrete facial signs of emotion among 10-month-old infants who were tested in a standard stranger- and mother-approach paradigm that included a brief separation from mother. Data underscore the usefulness of EEG measures of hemispheric activation in differentiating among…

Evaluates the extent to which 54 infants aged three, six and nine months and their mothers were able to coordinate their behavior. Results indicate that mother-infant pairs increase their degree of coordination with infant age, but the proportion of time they are coordinated is small. (RJC)