caregiver-infant interactions

• reciprocity


  responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the other partner. the responses are not necessarily similar as in interactional synchrony.

  1970s research e.g. Jaffe et al demonstrated infants coordinated their actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation.

  Brazelton - basic rhythm is important precursor to later communications. the regularity of an infant’s signals allows a caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and respond appropriately.
• interactional synchrony


  when two people interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing - facial and body movements. includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours.

  Meltzoff and Moore - infants as young as 2 to 3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand movements.

  adult model displayed one of three facial/hand movements and infant watched with a dummy. dummy was removed and infant‘s expression was filmed. association between infant and adult behaviour was found.

  same synchrony found in infants only 3 days old.
• real or pseudo imitation

  meltzoff and moore - imitation is intentional

  piaget - infants only develop this skill once they are just under 1 year old. anything before this is “response training”; repeating rewarded behaviours.

  Murray and Trevarthen - disagree with piaget. 2 month olds first interact with mother through video monitor. then a tape of the mother is played on the monitor so that there is no response to the infant. result is acute distress, shows that the infant is eliciting a response not a reward.