Reciprocity & Interactional Syncrony

• Interactional synchrony


  When an infant mirrors the actions of their care-giver
• Examples of interactional synchrony


  • Facial expressions
  • Hand gestures
• Interactional synchrony


  Infants 'copy' their care-giver
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) research into interactional synchrony

  1. Used infants as young as two weeks old

  2. Observed them via a camera

  3. Infants observed a parent do 2 or 3 of four actions: opening mouth, poking tongue out, frowning and waving a finger

  4. Independent observers asked to view footage and state what they saw the infant actually do

  5. This was a 'Double Blind' as the observer did not know the aim of the experiment
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) research

  Positive correlation found between the infant's actions and those of the Primary Care Giver (PCG): Copying/imitating was felt to be occurring
• Isabella et al (1989) research into interactional synchrony


  1. Assessed interactional synchrony in 30 infants: PCG dyads using the Meltzoff and Moore method

  2. Found that the better synchrony was shown by those infants who had high levels of attachment to their PCG
• Interactional synchrony


  Important and is linked to strong, securely attached relationships
• This research has strong face validity as it looks to be true: It makes sense we learn at a young age how to interact with others for our own survival
• The use of the 'double blind' observer who looked at the tapes for Meltzoff and Moore meant less biased results
• The camera may have had an effect on the participants, especially the infant, as it may have been intrusive and noisy
• We can never be really certain if the infant poked out their tongue or frowned as they were copying or if it was for another reason, unrelated to the PCG's actions
• Reciprocity

  Interaction between a caregiver and an infant where they respond to each other's signals appropriately
• Pseudo-conversation


  Caregiver 'speaks' to the infant and then 'allows' the infant to respond, teaching the child about turn-taking in conversations
• Pseudo-conversation


  • Neither party can understand what the other is saying
  • Caregiver speaks in 'motherese' or 'caregivers' - the exaggerated sing-song voice often used by adults to 'talk' to babies and animals
  • Caregiver speaks and then allows the infant to mumble/gurgle a reply, before responding
• Pseudo-conversation is the start of learning how to converse with others