PROXIMAL CHANNELS AND EMOTIONAL COMMUNICATION

University Of California Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION Though the importance of proximal stimulation for the infant is generally acknowledge, its specific contribution to emotional communication remains relatively unexplored. Although it is well documented that maternal proximal cues regulate the infant's level of arousal and attention, the efficacy of proximal channels to communicate the mother's affective state to the infant is unknown. The present proposal is meant to be a first step in exploring the effectiveness of proximal channels to communicate the mother's affective valence to her infant. 8- and 12-month-old infants and their mothers will be introduced to a novel toy or a hear inducing stranger. Mothers will be randomly assigned to emote either a negative, positive, or neutral emotional message in response to these environmental stimuli. Infants' affective displays, as well as their instrumental behaviors toward the toy and stranger, will be measured to assess the efficacy of proximal stimulation to communicate the affective valence of mothers' emotional messages to their infants.