The infant's role in mother–infant communications

Abstract

ABSTRACTMothers talked to their infants via a video system designed so that each partner saw a full-face, life-size image of the other on a screen before them, perfect eye-to-eye contact being possible. They were presented either with live, real-time video sequences of their infants, where communication was therefore potentially mutually responsive, or else with the same sequence replayed some minutes later. The mother's babytalk differed consistently between live and replay sequences. Since the infants' acts were identical in form in the two conditions, the only difference being the infant's potential responsiveness to the mother, these results are evidence for the infant's active role in contributing to the nature of interactions with adults.