Name:Sara Ripley

School/Affiliation:McMaster University

Co-Authors:Sara M Ripley1, Wei Fang1, Xinyang Liu1, Gabriel Xiao1, Laurel Trainor1 1McMaster University

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Abstract:

The early social interactions between an infant and their mother (or primary caregiver) significantly impact the infant’s developmental outcomes, and involve physiological, arousal and stress coordination. Within these interactions, the roles of infant-directed (ID) singing and speech are substantial. In response to these signals, infants coordinate their gaze, affect, and heart rhythm with those of their caregivers. The planned research focuses on gaze and blinking. Few studies have examined the bidirectional effects of looking behaviour in caregiver–infant interactions, as infant eye-tracking studies have typically relied on video stimuli and thus could not examine live infant¬–caregiver interactions. The planned study will investigate the differential and bidirectional effects of ID singing and speech in caregiver–infant interactions, using dual video-based eye-tracking. We expect that, for younger infants especially (4 months), ID singing will be more engaging as singing tends to be more expressive than speech and often conveys emotion. We expect this increase in infant engagement to be marked by increased looking to the caregivers’ eyes and a reduced blinking rate. We also anticipate that caregiver and infant eye behaviour will be cyclically coordinated. Specifically, during moments when the caregiver is highly engaged and therefore blinking at a reduced rate, the infant will then also become more engaged and reduce their own blinking rate. This work will provide insight into how caregivers and infants communicate, and how infants receive and respond to their caregiver’s social cues.