Care giver and infant interactions

Question 1

What were the aims of the study?

Answer 1

To investigate reciprocity between infants and caregivers

Question 2

What was the procedure of the experiment?

Answer 2

• An adult model displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements where the fingers moved in a sequence
• a dummy was placed in the infants mouth and it was then removed and the child’s expression was recorded on camera
• an independent observer was asked to watch the recordings and look at the facial expressions of the infant (i.e tongue protrusion, mouth opening)

Question 3

What were the findings of the experiment?

Answer 3

Babies aged 12 to 27 days could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures

Question 4

What were the conclusions of the experiment?

Answer 4

That the ability to imitate serves as an important building block for later social and cognitive development