Neonates’ responses to repeated exposure to a still face

The main aims of the study were to examine whether human neonates' responses to communication disturbance modelled by the still-face paradigm were stable and whether their responses were affected by their previous experience with the still-face paradigm.The still face procedure, as a laboratory model of interpersonal stress, was administered repeatedly, twice, to 84 neonates (0 to 4 day olds), with a delay of an average of 1.25 day.Frame-by-frame analysis of the frequency and duration of gaze, distressed face, crying, sleeping and sucking behaviours showed that the procedure was stressful to them both times, that is, the still face effect was stable after repeated administration and newborns consistently responded to such nonverbal violation of communication. They averted their gaze, showed distress and cried more during the still-face phase in both the first and the second administration. They also showed a carry-over effect in that they continued to avert their gaze and displayed increased distress and crying in the first reunion period, but their gaze behaviour changed with experience, in the second administration. While in the first administration the babies continued averting their gaze even after the stressful still-face phase was over, this carry-over effect disappeared in the second administration, and the babies significantly increased their gaze following the still-face phase.After excluding explanations of fatigue, habituation and random effects, a self-other regulatory model is discussed as a possible explanation for this pattern

Reinforcer Identification in Infants

Recent research with adults and children with disabilities has yielded procedures for systematically identifying potential reinforcers. Used primarily with adults with developmental disabilities, this methodology, stimulus preference assessment, has been shown to accurately identify stimuli as reinforcers and rank them according to effectiveness. Although preference procedures have been used in basic infant research, no methodology specifically designed to compare various potential reinforcers for infants has been developed. As many operant interventions with infants involve reinforcer-based procedures, reliable knowledge about potential reinforcers would be of great value. An adaptation of the stimulus preference assessment procedure for use with infants is proposed and discussed along with the potential practical benefits of such a procedure