Mutual gaze and visual co-orientation between mothers and infants :

Abstract

Tapes were coded as to the occurrence of mutual gaze and visual co-orientation, as well as any gestures and/or vocalizations which occurred during these visual interactions. Various visual and vocal measures derived from this coding were subjected to analysis, which yielded the following results. First, correlational analyses revealed a complete lack of relationship between mutual gaze and visual co-orientation behaviors, both visual and vocal. Second, conditional probabilities demonstrated that mothers were more likely to initiate mutual gaze episodes and terminate visual co-orientation, while infants were more likely to initiate visual co-orientation and terminate mutual gaze sequences. Finally, multivariate analyses of variance, with infant sex, cognitive level and maternal sensitivity as factors, revealed a complex interaction between the three variables of interest, particularly with regard to mutual gaze visual behaviors and maternal vocalizations during visual co-orientation. Subsequent individual comparisons demonstrated that, for mutual gaze measures, less sensitive mothers were much more interested in pursuing eye-to-eye contact with their sensorimotor stage 3 male infants compared to their stage 3 female infants. With regard to vocalizations during visual co-orientation, it was found that less sensitive mothers vocalized significantly more to their stage 3 daughters than to their stage 3 sons.

40 mothers (evenly divided as to low and high sensitivity) and their infants (evenly divided as to males and females and as to their placement in sensorimotor stages 2 or 3, as conceptualized by Piaget) were included in this study. The experimental procedure took place in the home and consisted of three sessions. First, a 3-minute observation of naturalistic mother-infant play was observed, during which the experimenter and an observer assessed maternal sensitivity. Then, to assess mutual gaze, mother-infant pairs were videotaped for 5 minutes in and unstructured (i.e., without toys) situation. Finally, to assess visual co-orientation, the mothers and infants were filmed for 5 minutes through a plexiglass board on which various toys were bolted. After the videotaping, the Uzgiris-Hunt Ordinal Scales were administered to the infant in order to assess cognitive level.

This study was intended to examine the occurrence of mutual gaze and visual co-orientation (i.e., joint attention to the same environmental feature) between mothers and infants during play sessions; also of interest was the frequency and types of communicative behaviors which occurred during these episodes of mutual gaze and visual co-orientation. In addition, the effects of infant gender, infant cognitive level and maternal sensitivity upon these visual interactions and accompanying communicative acts were assessed.

Conclusions derived from these results focused primarily upon the interaction between the three variables of interest. Specifically, it was noted that there has been a growing acknowledgement in developmental psychology of the complexities which are inherent in any developmental process. The present results certainly verified this complexity and emphasized the need for further examination of the unique ways in which infant and maternal variables act in conjunction to influence mother and infant visual and vocal behaviors.