(Press-News.org) CORAL GABLES, FL (April 6, 2011)—Learning how babies communicate can teach us a lot about the development of human social interactions. Psychologist Daniel Messinger, from the University of Miami (UM), studies infants' interactions and has found that babies are not simply living in the moment. Instead, infants seem to have particular interests that create historical footprints reflected in the infants' visual engagement over time. The findings were published today, in a study titled, 'Are You Interested, Baby?' Young Infants Exhibit Stable Patterns of Attention during Interaction." in the journal Infancy.
"Previous views of young infants essentially assumed they were primarily affected by what was going on right then," says Messinger, associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at UM and lead author of this study. "The new findings show that the baby is grounded in time and affected by the past, in a surprisingly mature way."
The study indicates that if babies are capable of controlling their behavior with respect to previous behavior, it may represent a building block of intentional action. Babies are influenced by their past actions. This is necessary for them to later develop the ability to obtain mental goals.
Messinger and his collaborators analyzed the duration of individual instances of the baby staring at and away from mom's face. They examined 13 infants interacting with their moms, during weekly face-to-face interactions. The team looked at a total of 208 interactions, in babies between four and 24 weeks old, and found that one can positively predict the duration of the baby looking at mom by the duration of the two previous gazes at mom. Longer gazes at mom tended to follow longer gazes at mom, and shorter gazes followed shorter gazes. The same was true for the duration of the gaze away from mom's face. Interestingly, the duration of gazes to and away from mom were not predicted by one another.
"We found that the duration of infant looking at mother's face, is related to how long they looked at mother's face the last time she looked at her, and the time before that," says Messinger. "In other words, infants are showing ongoing interest that is independent of interest in other things. So infants are coordinating these two patterns of interest."
The study also corroborated previous findings of a decrease in the duration of baby's gaze at mom, as time progressed. This is likely the result of babies' expanding awareness of their surroundings, explains Messinger.
"For babies, it may reflect the infant's increasing familiarity with the mother's face and their heightening interest in nonsocial features of the environment like their own hands, the lights in the room and whatever's around," says Messinger. "For parents, the challenge appears to be understanding that this does not reflect a decreased interest in them, but merely greater interest in visually exploring the rest of the environment. It's like a taste of growing children's increasing interest in the outside world."
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This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Co-authors are Naomi Ekas, postdoctoral associate in psychology at the University of Miami; Paul Ruvolo, graduate student in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; and Alan D. Fogel, Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah.
The University of Miami's mission is to educate and nurture students, to create knowledge, and to provide service to our community and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of the diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders of our nation and the world. www.miami.edu
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College Park, Md. (April 6, 2011) -- A new drug delivery device designed and constructed by Jie Chen, Thomas Cesario and Peter Rentzepis promises to unlock the potential of photosensitive chemicals to kill drug-resistant infections and perhaps cancer tumors as well.
Photosensitive chemicals are molecules that release single oxygen atoms and chemical radicals when illuminated. These radicals are very active chemically, and can rip apart and destroy bacteria, said Peter Rentzepis, a professor of chemistry at University of California, Irvine.
Yet photosensitive chemicals ...
Watching your parents age is an emotional and often challenging experience. For members of the "sandwich" generation, the need to consider care for aging parents comes while parenting duties for their own children continue. The double-duty can be difficult, especially serious health and financial issues are involved.
The Child Becomes the Caregiver
For example, many adult children must make sudden decisions when mom or dad falls and breaks a hip or is diagnosed with the first signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Once this happens, the tables have turned, and the child ...
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL - April 7, 2011 – A large cohort study following 37,000 teenagers for 17 years found that an elevated, yet normal range Body Mass Index (BMI) constitutes a substantial risk factor for obesity-related disorders in young adults (age 30-40).
The study showed that elevated BMI in adolescence has distinctive relationships with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in young adulthood.
Researchers showed that diabetes is influenced mainly by recent BMI and weight gain. However, for coronary heart disease, both elevated BMI in adolescence and recent ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Youths identified as American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) have the greatest lifetime smoking rate of all racial groups, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly half of the 1.2 million AI/AN youths in the U.S. smoke cigarettes. A University of Missouri study found that public health strategies to combat smoking should teach refusal skills to help youths combat smoking influences, including family members and peers.
"Smoking and quitting behaviors are heavily influenced by factors in the immediate environment, including family, ...
For almost a quarter of a century, the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has distributed alcohol permits to bar and restaurant owners based on a formulaic population quota system rooted in state law. But this system of liquor license rationing has proven a major headache for enterprising Utah restaurant moguls looking to take advantage of one of the fastest growing markets for eateries in the nation.
Census reports show slower than expected population growth in Utah (so the number of issued liquor licenses actually exceeds the amount technically allowed ...
A recent news story talks about the tension between driving safely and the proliferation of electronic devices one can use in a car. Many of them can now be used "hands free" with the hope that it will prevent drivers from fumbling around, trying to type in a number or a text as they drive down the highway.
Not everyone is convinced that merely making cell phones, GPSs, iPods and every other electronic device people use in cars, hands free will really help people drive safely.
Studies by the National Transportation Safety Board have pointed out that texting while ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. - More than 40 percent of Americans have at least one step relative, according to a recent Pew Center study. Relationships between stepchildren and stepparents can be complicated, especially for children. University of Missouri experts have found that stepchildren relate with stepparents based on the stepparents' treatment of them and their evaluations, or judgments, of the stepparents' behaviors.
"It takes both parties – children and adults – to build positive relationships in stepfamilies," said Larry Ganong, professor in the Department of Human Development ...
WASHINGTON—April 6, 2011—With Congress at a budget impasse, a new poll suggests the nation's leaders should look more deeply at the public's priorities, particularly regarding proposed cuts to medical, health and scientific research. Research!America urges our nation's leaders to put the public's interest and the nation's future ahead of politics and to move past polarizing budget battles and the uncertainty of continuing resolutions that resolve nothing. Americans are hungry for solutions from Washington.
The poll, commissioned by Research!America, surveyed a mix of ...
In the same way that a drunk driving accident may result in criminal (DUI) charges as well as civil claims (for property damage or injuries caused in the accident), worksite accidents may also give rise to both criminal charges and civil claims for damages.
A recent case out of San Luis Obispo County is a perfect example where both civil and criminal consequences arose out of a construction accident. A construction site foreman was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of violating the Labor Code in connection with a worksite accident in ...
CHICAGO --- In a large multi-center clinical trial, a new PSA test to screen for prostate cancer more accurately identified men with prostate cancer -- particularly the aggressive form of the disease -- and substantially reduced false positives compared to the two
currently available commercial PSA tests, according to newly published research from Northwestern Medicine.
The only currently available Food and Drug Administration-approved screening tests for prostate cancer result in a high number of false positives and lead to unnecessary biopsies and possible over-detection ...
