Infants' Understanding of the Link Between Visual Perception and Emotion: "If She Can't See Me Doing It, She Won't Get Angry"

Two experiments investigated 18-month-olds' understanding of the link between visual perception and emotion. Infants watched an adult perform actions on objects. An emoter then expressed neutral affect or anger toward the adult in response to the adult's actions. Subsequently, infants were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 2008-03, Vol.44 (2), p.561-574
Main Authors: Repacholi, Betty M, Meltzoff, Andrew N, Olsen, Berit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Awareness
Babies
Behavior Patterns
Biological and medical sciences
Child development
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Processes
Comprehension
Cues
Developmental psychology
Emotional Response
Emotions
Face Perception
Facial Expression
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Infant
Infant Development
Infants
Information
Male
Mental Recall
Newborn. Infant
Personal Construct Theory
Preschool Children
Psychology, Child
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance
Regulation
Sensory perception
Social Cognition
Social Conformity
Visual Perception
Visual task performance
Young Children
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Summary:Two experiments investigated 18-month-olds' understanding of the link between visual perception and emotion. Infants watched an adult perform actions on objects. An emoter then expressed neutral affect or anger toward the adult in response to the adult's actions. Subsequently, infants were given 20 s to interact with each object. In Experiment 1, the emoter faced infants with a neutral expression during each 20-s response period but looked at either a magazine or the infant. In Experiment 2, the emoter faced infants with a neutral expression, and her eyes were either open or closed. When the emoter visually monitored infants' actions, the infants regulated their object-directed behavior on the basis of their memory of the emoter's affect. However, if the previously angry emoter read a magazine (Experiment 1) or closed her eyes (Experiment 2), infants were not governed by her prior emotion. Infants behaved as if they expected the emoter to get angry only if she could see them performing the actions. These findings suggest that infants appreciate how people's visual experiences influence their emotions and use this information to regulate their own behavior.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/0012-1649.44.2.561