Developmental psychology
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Developmental psychology · Mar 1999
Comparative StudyCan newborns discriminate between their own cry and the cry of another newborn infant?
Two experiments were conducted to test whether newborns could discriminate between their own cry and the cry of another newborn infant. Facial behavior and nonnutritive sucking rate were adopted as dependent measures. In Experiment 1, 20 newborns in an awake state were presented with either their own cry or the cry of another infant. ⋯ In addition, the rate of sucking decreased significantly between the pretest phase and the 1st min of presentation of another infant's cry. Newborns' responses, although delayed and less intense, showed a similar trend in Experiment 2, during which 20 newborns in a sleep state were tested with the same procedure. These results indicate the newborns' capability to discriminate between the 2 cry stimuli and show the effectiveness of a newborn cry in inducing distress signals in another newborn infant.
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Developmental psychology · Mar 1999
Attention and reaction to distress in infancy: a longitudinal study.
The primary aim of this study was to verify whether early individual differences in look duration are related to general mechanisms of the infant nervous system that draw together attention and emotion. Thirty-one infants were observed at 3, 5, and 11 months of age. Facial expressions of pain and distress were observed by means of C. ⋯ Significant correlations between measures of attention and duration of facial expressions of pain and distress were found at each age level. Infants who showed pain or distress for a shorter time period also paid attention for a shorter time period and vice versa. The main conclusion is that individual differences combining control of both pain and attention can be identified from early infancy.