Infant-caregiver interactions

• Why is interaction important (in a caregiver-infant relationship)?

  • in order for an infant to form an attachment with its caregiver, there needs to be interaction and reciprocity
  • babies need to be able to communicate with their carer
• What are the types of interaction? (infant-caregiver)

  • bodily contact - hugs, kisses, breast-feeding
  • mimicking - imitating the caregiver's facial expressions
  • caregiverese - high pitched, sing-song, slow and repetitive voice (baby voice) which helps babies to respond
  • interactional synchrony - infants move their bodies in tune with rhythm of caregivers language to create a kind of turn taking
  • reciprocity - interactions should result in a mutual behaviour, both parties can produce responses from each other
• Tronick - 'still face' experiment

  • his study showed the importance of two way interaction
  • mum and baby play normally (positive facial expressions and body language, interactional synchrony, baby voice) until mother puts on a 'still face', stopping responding to her baby
  • the baby becomes very distressed - starts doing everything to win back her mum's attention
  • signs of baby's distress = crying, kicking, pointing, disengaging (looking away), screaming, pointing (trying to restart the interactional synchrony)
• Klaus and Kennell


  • compared mums who had extended physical contact with their babies lasting several hours a day, with mums who only had physical contact with their babies during feeding in the 3 days following birth
  • 1 month later - mums with greater physical contact were found to cuddle their babies more and made greater eye contact
  • effects still noticeable after 1 year
• Melzoff and Moore


  • found that infants ages 2-3 weeks tended to mimic adults specific facial expressions and hand movements
  • supports the idea that infant memory is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachment
• Papousek


  • found that using a rising tone to indicate to an infant that it was the infant's turn for interaction is cross-cultural
  • suggests that caregiverese is an innate and biological device to facilitate the formation of attachments
• Heimann


  • shared that infants who demonstrate a lot of imitation from birth onwards have been found to have a better quality of relationship at 3 months
  • EVAL: it isn't clear whether the imitation is a cause or an effect of early synchrony
• Evaluation of infant-caregiver attachment research

  • practical application - hospitals now place mums and babies in a room together following birth
  • caregiverese has been seen to be used by adults to all infants , not just those they had an attachment with (suggests that caregiverese just aids communication between adults and infants rather than forming attachments)
  • interactional synchrony - is not found in all cultures. e.g Kenyan mothers have little interaction or physical contact with their infants but have secure attachments
• Issues with conducting research into caregiver-infant interactions

  • many studies involving observation have shown the same patterns of interaction BUT what is being observed is merely hand movement or changes in expression - difficult to be certain what is taking place from infants POV - is it deliberate and conscious?
  • we cannot know for certain that behaviours seen in infant-caregiver relationships is special
  • observations of mother-infant interactions are well-controlled procedures
  • ...
• Definition of interactional synchrony

  • when a mother and infant reflect each other's emotions and actions in a coordinated way