Effects of familiarity and attentiveness of partner on 6-month-old infants’ social engagement

This study presents an ecological experiment investigating 6-month-olds’ social engagement. Results show that infants look and smile more at a socially attending distant partner than at an inattentive partner and that their looking and smiling behavior is different when the inattentive partner is their mother.

► 6-month-old infants dedicate a significant proportion of their visual attention to social partners.
► Infants attend selectively to social partners as a function of their own reciprocal attentiveness.
► 6-month-olds’ looking and smiling behavior is different when the inattentive partner is their mother.
► By enhancing the ecology we may have increased the opportunity to observe what infants are really able to.