Infants' sensitivity to familiar imperfect contigencies in social interaction

Abstract

Four- and five-month-old infants participated in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with strangers. The contingent responsiveness for vocalizations and smiles was assessed for each partner in both interactions. For vocalizations and for smiles, infants were more responsive to strangers whose level of contingent responsiveness to them was similar to that of their mothers and they were less responsive to strangers who were either more contingent or less contingent to them than their mothers. Results are supportive of the hypothesis that infants develop sensitivities to the particular imperfect social contingency present in their parental interactions and, as a consequences, they are most responsive to others who interact with levels of contingency similar to those with which they are familiar.