Constructing Interaction: The Development of Gaze Dynamics

Abstract

Gaze is one of the first and most important means of communication and coordination in parent–infant dyads. In the present paper we used a novel method, designed to discover patterns in time‐series, to investigate the dynamics of gaze in dyads and its developmental change. Using a longitudinal corpus of natural interactions, mutual mother–infant gaze was coded when the infants were 3, 6, and 8 months old and subjected to recurrence analysis. The cross‐recurrence profiles obtained for the three time points show systematic differences: While the engagement in mutual gaze decreases with age, the behaviour becomes more tightly coupled as a more regular temporal structure emerges. We suggest that this stronger interdependency of gaze behaviour may indicate the development of a social feedback loop enabling engagement in interaction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.