Staff
Publication details for Dr Nadja Reissland
Reissland, N & Shepherd, J (2002). Gaze direction and maternal pitch in surprise-eliciting situations. Infant Behavior & Development 24(4): 408-417.- Publication type: Journal papers: academic
- ISSN/ISBN: 0163-6383
Author(s) from Durham
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that not only do
babies use emotional signals from adults in order to relate emotions to
specific situations (e.g., Campos & Stenberg, 1981) but also that
mothers seek out emotional information from their infants (Emde, 1992).
Three groups of mothers and their infants, 3, 5 and 9 months old were
video- and audio-taped, while playing in their homes with a soft toy
and a remote-control Jack-in-the-box. During surprise-eliciting play
with the Jack- in-the-box, maternal and infant gaze direction and their
emotional expressions of surprise, pleasure, fear and neutral
expressions were coded in three regions of the face. In addition, the
mean fundamental frequency of maternal surprise-vocalisations was
analysed. Maternal exclamations of surprise were compared with similar
utterances of these mothers while playing with a soft toy as a
baseline. During the surprise event, maternal and infant gaze
directions as well as infant age were analysed in relation to maternal
pitch. Results are discussed in terms of maternal use of the pitch of
her voice to mark surprising situations, depending on the
gaze-direction of the infant. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science
Inc.