The Effects of Contingency in Previous Interactions on Infants’ Preference for Social Partners

A short-term longitudinal study with 4and 5-month-old infants investigated whether infants’ prior experience with contingency or noncontingency in social interactions with specific others affects infants’ preference for these others in subsequent interactions. On Session 1 infants were simultaneously presented with social interaction from two strangers via video, one was interacting contingently and one was interacting noncontingently (a replay of the stranger interacting with another infant). On Session 2 six days later, the same two strangers were simultaneously presented to the infant again; this time both interacted contingently. The infants attended more to the contingent stranger on Session 1 and to this same stranger on Session 2. The results indicate that infants prefer to attend to people who have been responsive to them in the past compared to those who have not and that 4and 5-month-olds can maintain expectations for responsiveness based on previous encounters for at least six days.