Development of infants' contingency detection: influences of maternal behavior and effects on cognitive abilities

婴儿意外事件检测的发展：母亲行为的影响及其对认知能力的影响

• 批准号: 1178-2010
• 负责人: Bigelow, Ann
• 金额: $ 1.97万
• 依托单位: St. Francis Xavier University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=543946
• 关键词: Development; infants; contingency; detection; influences

Early self knowledge arises with infants' awareness of the relation or contingency between self actions and external changes. Infants' most accessible source of perceiving change contingent on their behavior occurs in interactions with their mothers. Mothers tend to reflect infants' behavior in exaggerated and perceptually salient ways, allowing infants to easily recognize the external effect of their behavior. Mothers are selective in their responsiveness to infants' actions, responding primarily to behavior perceived to have emotional content. Maternal mirroring of infants' emotional behavior facilitates infants' ability to regulate their own emotions. Yet mothers vary in the level of contingent responsiveness they provide to infants. Infants are sensitive to the particular levels of contingency experienced with their mothers and prefer those levels of contingency in novel situations, which allows their experience with such levels to be easily perpetuated. Thus, individual differences in the maternal contingency infants experience affect their emerging cognitive and emotional self knowledge. Theorists propose that infants' experience with contingency in maternal interaction also facilitates infants' later cognitive ability to interpret the actions of others as intentional. Beginning around nine months of age, infants display joint attention, in that they engage in activities with objects that acknowledge the participation of a partner. Joint attention indicates an emerging understanding of others as intentional beings whose actions are purposeful. The research program investigates the influence of individual differences in maternal contingency on infants' emerging understanding of self and other by examining (1) infants' ability to detect the effect of their behavior and to regulate their emotions during face-to-face interactions, and (2) infants' later capacities to respond to others as intentional beings. The research furthers the understanding of infants' perceptual and cognitive developments, particularly as they relate to early self knowledge and its consequences. At a practical level, the research can inform intervention programs for children at risk in their development of early knowledge of self and others, either through disability or family circumstances.

早期的自我认识是随着婴儿意识到自我行为与外部变化之间的关系或偶然性而产生的。婴儿最容易感知到其行为变化的来源是与母亲的互动。母亲倾向于以夸张的、感知上显着的方式反映婴儿的行为，让婴儿很容易认识到自己行为的外部影响。母亲对婴儿行为的反应是有选择性的，主要对被认为具有情感内容的行为做出反应。母亲对婴儿情绪行为的镜像有助于婴儿调节自己情绪的能力。然而，母亲们对婴儿的偶然反应程度各不相同。婴儿对与母亲一起经历的特定级别的意外事件很敏感，并且更喜欢在新情境中遇到这些级别的意外事件，这使得他们对这些级别的经历很容易延续下去。因此，母亲意外事件婴儿经历的个体差异会影响他们新兴的认知和情感自我认识。理论家提出，婴儿在母亲互动中经历的偶然事件也有助于婴儿后来的认知能力，将他人的行为解释为有意的。从九个月大左右开始，婴儿表现出共同注意力，因为他们与承认伙伴参与的物体一起参与活动。共同关注表明人们逐渐理解他人是有意识的存在，其行为是有目的的。 该研究项目通过检查（1）婴儿在面对面互动中检测其行为影响和调节情绪的能力，以及（2）婴儿后来将他人作为有意识的存在做出反应的能力，研究了母亲偶然事件中的个体差异对婴儿对自我和他人的新兴理解的影响。该研究进一步加深了对婴儿知觉和认知发展的理解，特别是与早期自我认识及其后果相关的发展。在实践层面上，这项研究可以为因残疾或家庭环境而面临自我和他人早期知识发展风险的儿童提供干预计划。