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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
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Published on: April 28, 2016

Infant wariness toward strangers reconsidered: infants' and mothers' reactions to unfamiliar persons

K Kaltenbach, M Weinraub, W Fullard

    Child Development
    |December 1, 1980
    PubMed

    In this study, the interpretation of infants' responses to approaching strangers as "wariness" or "fear" was questioned by comparing infants' behaviors toward strangers with adults' behaviours toward strangers. 24 8-month-old infants and their mothers were observed in a standard laboratory situation. Both infants and mothers were approached by female strangers with a fast, 12-sec approach and a slow, 40-sec approach. Mothers' and infants' behaviors were coded at 4 distances during each approach. Behaviors coded were smile, alert face, quizzical look, frown, looks at mother/infant, looks at stranger, and averts gaze. Mothers showed significantly more behaviors typically labeled "wary" than did infants, particularly as the proximity of the stranger increased. These findings suggest that wary responses toward strangers are not unique to infants and may be more characteristic of the situation than of the developmental level of the individual.

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