Infant Social Referencing Research Articles

Uncertainty matters: impact of stimulus ambiguity on infant social referencing

AbstractMost infant social referencing studies have assumed that infants would be more likely to engage in social looking and be influenced by adults' message when a context is ambiguous. The present study empirically tested the effect of stimulus ambiguity on infants' referencing behaviours, with three different stimuli (positive, ambiguous, and negative), two different messages (happy and fearful), two different message providers (mother and stranger), and in two age groups (12 and 16 month olds). A typical social referencing paradigm was used and infants' social looking and regulation were measured. Infants looked at adults more frequently and faster during ambiguous situations than during unambiguous situations. They also tended to regulate their affect and behaviour based on adults' message only towards ambiguous toys. Older infants tended to look at adults faster, and showed stronger reactions towards ambiguous stimuli than younger infants, suggesting that infants' social development may moderate the effect of stimulus ambiguity on social referencing. Overall, results indicated that the ambiguity postulate is a legitimate assumption for infant social referencing. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Selectivity in Infant Social Referencing.

In laboratory studies of social referencing, infants as young as 12 months have been reported to prefer looking at the experimenter over the caregiver for clarifying information. From an expertise perspective, such behavior could be interpreted as if the infant seeks information from others and can discriminate between persons who have or do not have relevant information to provide in the laboratory. If this is the case, higher order cognitive capacities might be involved in infant selectivity in looking in social referencing situations. However, it has also been proposed that associative learning processes might account for infant preferences in such studies. To examine whether an expertise perspective or if more basic learning processes best explain infant selectivity in looking, 40 12-month-old infants were assigned to 1 of 2 comparable conditions. The experimenter versus the caregiver presented an ambiguous toy and delivered positive information about the toy. The infants preferred to look at the experimenter and they regulated their behavior more in accordance with information coming from the experimenter. Thus, an associative learning account cannot explain infant preferences in looking. The results are discussed in terms of an expertise perspective.

Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development.

There is ample empirical evidence for an asymmetry in the way that adults use positive versus negative information to make sense of their world; specifically, across an array of psychological situations and tasks, adults display a negativity bias, or the propensity to attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information. This bias is argued to serve critical evolutionarily adaptive functions, but its developmental presence and ontogenetic emergence have never been seriously considered. The authors argue for the existence of the negativity bias in early development and that it is evident especially in research on infant social referencing but also in other developmental domains. They discuss ontogenetic mechanisms underlying the emergence of this bias and explore not only its evolutionary but also its developmental functions and consequences. Throughout, the authors suggest ways to further examine the negativity bias in infants and older children, and they make testable predictions that would help clarify the nature of the negativity bias during early development.

Effects of maternal inattentiveness on infant social referencing

AbstractThe aim of the study was to clarify the meaning of infant looking behaviour when the infant is confronted with an ambiguous situation in order to disentangle the two processes social referencing and attachment. Ninety‐six 12‐month‐olds, presented with an ambiguous or an unambiguous toy, were assigned to one of four conditions; mother inattentive, mother conveyed positive information, and mother conveyed negative information about the ambiguous toy. In the fourth condition (control condition), an unambiguous toy was presented (mother inattentive). The ambiguous situation elicited more referencing looks than the unambiguous situation. During the presentation of the ambiguous toy, infants with inattentive mothers referenced the experimenter more than infants whose mothers provided guidance. In the following free‐play situation, infants in the inattentive group referenced mother to a higher degree than did the other infants. They played less with the toy than infants who had received positive information and infants in the control group, and were less eager to explore the surroundings than infants in the other three groups. When mother turned attentive the infants ceased referencing her and showed an interest in exploring. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

“I don't care what you say, I am not touching that snake”: Biologically relevant fear and infant social referencing

“I don't care what you say, I am not touching that snake”: Biologically relevant fear and infant social referencing

An experimental investigation of infant social referencing: Mothers' messages and gender differences.

An experimental investigation of infant social referencing: Mothers' messages and gender differences.

Social referencing as a function of information source: Mothers versus strangers

This study tested the notion that infants selectively reference (i.e., seek and utilize information from) their mothers rather than strangers when faced with a novel event. Fourteen-month-old infants were exposed to an uncertainty-provoking stimulus (a toy spider). The infants' mothers or a female stranger then conveyed a joyful or fearful facial expression to help define the event. Consistent with prior research, infants responded differently to the spider in the two conditions. However, differential responding occurred only in the presence of mothers, supporting the notion that infant social referencing is selective. Furthermore, infants who initially expressed fear of the spider waited longer to look at the adults' affective display and were less influenced by the display than were infants who expressed uncertainty. This confirmed that uncertainty promotes referencing.

The Effects of Positive Maternal Affect on Infant Responses to Pleasant, Ambiguous, and Fear-Provoking Toys

GUNNAR, MEGAN R., and STONE, CHERYL. The Effects of Positive Maternal Affect on Infant Responses to Pleasant, Ambiguous, and Fear-provoking Toys. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 1231-1236. 48 infants, 24 boys and 24 girls, aged 12-13 months, were observed responding to 3 toys: 1 pleasant toy, 1 ambiguous or strange toy, and 1 aversive toy. The infants experienced 2 trials with each toy. On 1 trial their mothers displayed positive affect; on the other trial their mothers displayed neutral affect. The order of maternal condition was counterbalanced. Maternal affect had no effect on infant reactions on the first trial with each toy. On the second trial, positive maternal affect resulted in more positive infant responses, but only for the ambiguous toy. No significant effects of maternal affect were found on either trial for the pleasant or fear-eliciting toys. These data provide support for the hypothesis that infant social referencing may be fairly specific to ambiguous stimuli and can also be viewed as indicating that under some circumstances infants try to process ambiguous events on their own before becoming responsive to their mother's evaluation of those events.