Evaluating Caregiver-infant Interactions

Question 1

Failure to replicate:

Marian et al. (1986)

Answer 1

replicated Meltzoff and Moore’s study and found opposite results suggesting that the problem may lie with the procedure rather than the infants ability to imitate

Question 2

Problems with testing infant behaviour:

Answer 2

Infants mouths are constantly moving much like the expressions tested in the study

Question 3

Is the behaviour intentional?

Abravanel and DeYong (1991):

Answer 3

observed infant behaviour when interacting with 2 inanimate objects and found that infants had little response to them showing that infants don’t just imitate anything they see

Question 4

Individual differences:
Isabella et al. (1989)
Heimann (1989)

Answer 4

found that more strongly attached infant-cargiver pairs showed greater synchrony.
Heimann showed that infants who demonstrate a lot of imitation from birth onward have been found to have a better repaltionship at 3 months