Abstract
Infant-adult synchrony has been reported through observational and experimental studies. Nevertheless, synchrony is addressed differently in both cases. While observational studies measure synchrony in spontaneous infant-adult interactions, experimental studies manipulate it, inducing nonspontaneous synchronous and asynchronous interactions. A still unsolved question is to what extent differ spontaneous synchrony from the nonspontaneous one, experimentally elicited. To address this question, we conducted a study to compare synchrony in both interactional contexts. Forty-three 14-month-old infants were randomly assigned to one of two independent groups: (1) the spontaneous interaction context, consisting of a storytime session; and (2) the nonspontaneous interaction context, where an assistant bounced the infant in synchrony with a stranger. We employed an optical motion capture system to accurately track the time and form of synchrony in both contexts. Our findings indicate that synchrony arising in spontaneous exchanges has different traits than synchrony produced in a nonspontaneous interplay. The evidence presented here offers new insights for rethinking the study of infant-adult synchrony and its consequences on child development.
Highlights
Interpersonal synchrony is defined as the spontaneous coordination of the interactants’ body patterns in time and form [1,2,3,4]
Our findings indicate that synchrony emerging in spontaneous interactions differs in time and morphology from that elicited in a nonspontaneous interaction
Concerning the form of spontaneous coordination, we found that it could be anatomical or mirror-like
Summary
Interpersonal synchrony is defined as the spontaneous coordination of the interactants’ body patterns in time and form [1,2,3,4]. Coordination has been reported between pairs of preschoolers [39] and child-adult couples [40, 41] during joint drumming It has been described between parents and their infants in turn-taking conversation contexts [42], free play [43], and daily life routines [44, 45]. Young infants can synchronize with adults in their facial expressions [47,48,49], gaze direction [50, 51], vocalizations [52], body
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