The current study examined the relations between individual differences in attention to emotion faces and temperamental negative affect across the first 2 years of life. Infant studies have noted a normative pattern of preferential attention to salient cues, particularly angry faces. A parallel literature suggests that elevated attention bias to…

In a laboratory procedure, 66 infants of 12 months were given happy, fearful, and conflicting emotional signals by their mothers and fathers with reference to five unusual toy stimuli. There were marked differences among infants in their capacity for and style of coping with conflict. A variety of specific responses to conflict were observed. (RH)

Examined 8- to 10-month-olds' responses to standard procedures eliciting joy, fear, anger, and discomfort. Found that response parameters to standard procedures cohered strongly within each episode. Responses cohered across same-emotion episodes, except for anger. Responses and father-reported temperament related to infant's emotional tone in…

Infants at two, four, and six months of age learned a string-pulling task and were tested again two months later. Individual differences in emotional expressions of anger during extinction, and interest and enjoyment during learning, were stable over the two-month interval. (BC)

Evaluated respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period in 5-month-olds during interaction challenges. Found that during object-mediated challenge, RSA increases were uniquely related to positive engagement. During person-mediated challenge, subjects showed more complex integration of autonomic and behavioral responses such that only infants…

Examines the course of emotion expression development during the first 2 years of 58 full-term and preterm children through videotapes of mother/infant pairs. Mothers' contingency behavior appeared to have an effect on emotional development, as did birth status and gender. Prematurity was associated with differential socioemotional development.…

This study was designed to investigate whether depressed mothers would show a predominantly negative affect or fail to provide a positive frame of experience for their babies. Two field studies of depressed mothers and their infants were conducted. A subgroup of 13 subjects and their babies from a larger project conducted in Cambridge…

This report is a portion of a study of attachment behavior: behavior promoting contact and/or proximity of an infant to his mother figure. This report deals specifically with crying, response to brief everyday separations from the mother and to her return, and behavior relevant to physical contact with her. The subjects, 26 infant-mother pairs…

Wary infants were more likely than bold infants to reference their mothers when the stimulus, a caged rabbit, was first presented; however, as the exploration period progressed, bold and wary infants referenced equally often. Referencing occurred less often than affective sharing. (RH)

Examined facial expressions in relation to cognition in infants 2 to 8 months of age. A total of 48 subjects received an audiovisual stimulus contingent on arm movement, whereas 32 infants did not control the stimulus. Infants in the contingent group expressed greater interest and joy during learning and greater anger during extinction. (RH)

This study was designed to assess genetic influence on behavioral inhibition and its varying expression in 92 monozygotic and 86 dizygotic twin pairs. Infant behavior and mother-child interaction were observed and videotaped during structured play sessions at age 14, 20, 24, and 36 months. Analysis of the results suggests that most of the overlap…

Mothers whose infants varied in early biological characteristics (born at term, n = 120; born at very low birth weight [VLBW], n = 144) were randomized to a target group (n = 133) or developmental feedback comparison group (n = 131) to determine whether learning responsive behaviors would facilitate infant development. The target condition…

Concerning the issues of emotional development, general agreement can only be reached on the definition of "emotional" behavior. Behavior is emotional when it varies from an individual's behavioral baseline by the addition of three components: (1) an action component, (2) an arousal component, and (3) a subjective "feeling" component. In all areas…

Investigated stability and change in infant affective responses to still-face interaction, impact of maternal depression, and whether infant responses predicted toddler problem behaviors. Found stable individual differences in gazing away and rates of negative affect. Gazing away increased over time. Mothers' current depressive symptoms and…

Factor analysis of 25 rating scales from Bayley's infant behavior record were performed for a sample of about 300-400 infant twins tested one or more times between 3 and 24 months of age. The analyses provided five major and two minor factors that were considerably consistent at all ages. (Author/DB)