caregiver-infant interactions

• real or pseudo imitation?

  Meltzoff and Moore  suggested that the imitation is intentional. However, Jean Piaget(1962)  believed that true imitation developed at the end of the first year and anything before this was response training(infant repeating behaviour that was rewarded -a result of operant conditioning). Piaget believed the infants behaviour was pseudo imitation ,the infant had not consciously translated what they see into a matching  movement. 
• Murray and Trevarthen’s study

  Two month old infants first interacted via a video monitor with their mother in real time.Then the video monitor played a tape where the mother is not responding to the infants’s facial and bodily gestures causing acute distress in the infant.The infants tried to gain their mother’s interest but when they received no response they turned away.This demonstrated that the infant is actively producing a response rather than displaying a response that has been rewarded.This further supports the idea that such behaviours are innate rather than learned.
• meltzoff and moore

  • carried out a study of interactional synchrony between an adult model and infants of two/three weeks.They found that these young infants were able to imitate specific facial and hand gestures.
• meltzoff and more study

  The adult model displayed ⅓ facial expressions or hand gestures where the fingers moved in a sequence.A dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth to prevent any response in the initial display.After the display ,the dummy was removed and the child’s expression was filmed .An association between the infant behaviour and the adult model was found.In a later study,they did the same study with infants only three days old.The fact that infants this young were displaying the behaviour ruled out the possibility that the imitation behaviours are learned.
• reciprocity

  Jaffe et al(1973) suggested that infants coordinated their actions with caregivers(like a conversation).Brazelton(1979) suggested that this rhythm is a precursor for later communications.This allows a caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and respond appropriately.This sensitivity to infant behaviour allows further attachment to occur.