Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The development of social referencing.

T A Walden1, T A Ogan

  • 1Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203.

Child Development
|October 1, 1988
PubMed
Summary

Infant social referencing develops significantly between 6-22 months. Older infants use facial cues more selectively, especially fearful ones, to guide toy interactions.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Differences in social signals produced by children with developmental delays of differing etiologies.

American journal of mental retardation : AJMR·1997
Same author

Social responsivity: judging signals of young children with and without developmental delays.

Child development·1996
Same author

Affective expressions of toddlers with and without Down syndrome in a social referencing context.

American journal of mental retardation : AJMR·1994
Same author

Contingent provision of social referential information by parents of children with and without developmental delays.

American journal of mental retardation : AJMR·1991
Same author

Observing interactions of abusive and nonabusive dyads: information extracted by accurate and inaccurate judges.

Journal of abnormal child psychology·1990
Same author

The effect of context and age on social referencing.

Child development·1989

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Infant Behavior
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Social referencing is crucial for infant development, allowing them to use caregiver cues to interpret novel situations.
  • Understanding the developmental trajectory of social referencing provides insights into early social cognition and emotional regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the developmental changes in social referencing behaviors in infants aged 6-22 months.
  • To examine how age influences infants' visual attention to parents and their instrumental behaviors in response to parental cues.

Main Methods:

  • Studied 40 infants across three age groups (6-9, 10-13, 14-22 months).
  • Defined social referencing broadly, including looks toward parents, toy behaviors, and affective expressions.
  • Analyzed infants' visual attention patterns and behavioral responses to parental affective cues (positive and fearful).

Main Results:

  • Infants' visual referencing became more selective with age, with older infants focusing on parents' faces.
  • Younger infants (6-9 months) looked more when parents showed positive affect; older infants (10-13 months) looked more during fearful reactions.
  • Behavioral regulation of toy interaction emerged by 10-13 months, with clear inhibition of touching toys until after referencing observed in infants over 14 months.

Conclusions:

  • Social referencing involves developing component skills, with significant changes occurring in the first and second years of life.
  • Looking behaviors serve different functions in younger versus older infants, indicating developmental shifts in social referencing.
  • Findings do not support mood modification or simple imitation as primary drivers of these referencing behaviors.

Related Experiment Videos