A new view of baby’s interactions

A study conducted by Psychologist Daniel Messinger, from the University of Miami, has uncovered that a baby’s social interactions are not simply driven by the here and now. Infants seek to create historical footprints via fvisual engagement, and contrary to popular belief, their past interactions impact present actions.

In examining 13 infants interact face-to-face with their mothers, Messinger and his collaborators found that longer gazes tended to follow longer gazes and shorter gazes followed shorter gazes. Over 208 interactions were monitored with infants four to 24 weeks of age.

“infants are showing ongoing interest that is independent of interest in other things,"  says Messinger,  "[They’re] coordinating these two patterns of interest." 

Complete findings from this study have been published under the title, Are You Interested, Baby? Young Infants Exhibit Stable Patterns of Attention during Interaction in the journal, Infancy.