Child Development · 1989 · 50 citations · 38 references
Social SciencesPsychologySocial PsychologyDevelopmental PsychologySocial BehaviorSocial CognitionClassical ConditioningEarly ChildhoodInfancy DevelopmentInfant DevelopmentOperant ConditioningSocial Cognition DevelopmentHabituationInfant Habit FormationInfant LearningInfant SocializationPositive Reinforcement In InfancySocial Interaction Patterns
3 experiments with 3-month-old infants compared the effects of contingent and noncontingent adult-infant social interactions on subsequent infant-controlled habituation and choice tasks. Infants who experienced a prior noncontingent social interaction tended to adopt response strategies that reduced the density of stimulation during these subsequent nonsocial tasks. The results are discussed in terms of their generality and the types of mechanisms that might mediate these transfer effects from social to nonsocial procedures.
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