This paper explores the effects of infant predominant state of arousal upon very early mother-infant interaction, through observation of a group of 20 healthy 3-day-old nursery roommates and their mothers during hospital feeding sessions. In an experimental procedure involving a modified time-sampling technique, two observers simultaneously…

This paper presents a study of the looking and looking away or gaze alternation behavior of both full term and preterm infants in the presence of varying degrees of facial animation. The faces used in the study included, in increasing order of animation, a Raggedy Ann doll's face, a moving and talking doll's face, a mother's less animated face…

The present series of studies was undertaken to explore intersensory processing in the very young. In the first experiment 1-, 4- and 7-month-old infants experienced simultaneously their mothers' faces and voices. The various conditions consisted of displacing the voice from the face. The results indicated that infants as young as one month of age…

The purpose of the observational system presented here is to record the behavioral interactions between infant and mother, focusing on the sequential and contextual features of the social communication patterns accessible through direct home observation of mothers and their 3- to 4-month-old infants. The present system of continuous data recording…