Patterns of mother–infant interaction and contingency learning in full-term infants

Abstract

This study explores the link between sensitive mother–infant interaction and the full-term infant's ability to detect and learn simple contingency relationships. The focus is mainly on contingent responsiveness, predictability of interactional behaviours, and their developmental outcomes. It is hypothesized that infants who lack maternal contingent responses are less able to detect and learn contingency relations in the environment. We considered as well the influence of infant interactional behaviours on contingency learning performance. A sample of 48 healthy full-term, first born infants and their mothers of middle socioeconomic status, were observed when the infants were 23–25 weeks old. Each dyad was videotaped for 6 minutes during face-to-face and object–play interaction, following which the infants took part in a contingency learning experiment. Rating scales were used to assess the quality of interactive behaviour displayed by the mother and the child. Measures of contingency learning and motivation to control the feedback were derived from the observation of behavioural and temporal patterns of response. The results indicate a positive relationship between maternal sensitive responsiveness and low intrusiveness with the infant's ability to detect and control the contingency at six months of age; infant's interactional behaviours were not associated with this kind of skill. Data are discussed in light of the relevance of a contingent support for the development of basic cognitive skills, as well as for the motivation to control non-social events. ©1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.