Interpersonal synchrony affects 18-month-olds' social alignment via self-other comparison

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Social Interaction

Background:

• Infants are inherently social, using others for learning and guidance.
• Interpersonal synchrony, or moving in sync with others, influences infant social preferences and helping behaviors.
• The development of a self-concept around infancy is a critical period for understanding social cues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how interpersonal synchrony affects infant imitation and social alignment.
• To explore the role of a developing self-concept in mediating responses to synchrony.
• To understand how synchrony influences social learning and self-other distinction in infants.

Main Methods:

• Administered the mirror self-recognition test to assess self-concept.
• Engaged infants in synchronous and asynchronous bouncing with an experimenter.
• Assessed imitation of suboptimal actions and social alignment via a sticker selection task.

Main Results:

• Infants with a cognitive self were more likely to choose a matching sticker after asynchronous movement, suggesting active alignment.
• Asynchronous movement led to more pointing, indicating heightened awareness of others' perspectives.
• Infants in the synchrony condition showed a slight increase in imitating suboptimal actions, suggesting enhanced social learning.

Conclusions:

• Interpersonal synchrony acts as a social cue, highlighting self-other similarity or differences for infants.
• A developing self-concept modulates infants' responses to synchrony, influencing their alignment and learning.
• Synchrony impacts how infants relate to, communicate with, and learn from others, particularly once a self-concept emerges.