Abstract
Two directions stand out in the current rethinking of development during infancy; one emphasizes the biologically given abilities and inclinations of the infant as a foundation for development, while the other stresses the infant’s social orientation and involvement from the earliest days of life. These two directions converge in studies of preverbal communication. The earliest communicative exchanges between infants and their adult partners are thought to rely on the sensitivity of both partners to certain aspects of human action, which seem to have biologically given significance. In the course of social exchanges, however, an infant’s developing understanding of reality is influenced by the meanings and interpretations given to actions and events by those interacting with the infant. Thus, the cultural understanding of the world soon begins to be reflected in various facets of infant activities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramovitch, R., & Grusec, J. E. (1978). Peer imitation in a natural setting. Child Development, 49, 60–65.
Abravanel, E. & DeYong, N. (1991).Does object modeling elicit imitative-like gestures from young infants? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 51, 22–40.
Abravanel, E., Levan-Goldschmidt, E., & Stevenson, M. B. (1976).Action imitation: The early phase of infancy. Child Development 47, 1032–1044.
Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S. W. (1985). Symbolic gesturing in language development. Human Development, 28, 40–49.
Acredolo, L. & Goodwyn, S. (1988). Symoblic gesturing in normal infants. Child Development, 59, 450–466.
Bakeman, R. & Adamson, L. B. (1984). Coordination attention to people and objects in mother-infant and peer-infant interaction. Child Development, 55, 1278–1289.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1977). From gesture to the first word: On cognitive and social prerequisites. In M. Lewis & L. Rosenblum (Eds.), Interaction, conversation, and the development of language (pp. 247–307). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1975). The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 22, 205–226.
Bretherton, I. (1984). Social referencing and the interfacing of minds: A commentary on the views of Feinman and Campos. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 30, 419–427.
Bretherton, I., & Bates, E. (1979). The emergence of intentional communication. In I. C. Uzgiris (Ed.), Social interaction and communication during infancy (pp. 81–100). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bretherton, I., Bates, E., McNew, S., Shore, C., Williamson, C., & Beeghly-Smith, M. (1981). Comprehension and production of symbols in infancy: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 17, 728–736.
Bretherton, I., McNew, S., & Beeghly-Smith, M. (1981).Early person knowledge as expressed in gestural and verbal communication: When do infants acquire a “theory of mind”? In M. E. Lamb & L. R. Sherrod (Eds.), Infant social cognition (pp. 333–373). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Brownell, C. A. & Kopp, C. B. (1991). Common threads, diverse solutions: Concluding commentary. Developmental Review, 11, 288–303.
Bruner, J. S. (1977). Early social interaction and language acquisition. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction (pp. 271–289). New York: Academic Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1978). Learning how to do things with words. In J. S. Bruner & A. Garton (Eds.), Human growth and development (pp. 62–84). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bruner, J. S., & Sherwood, V. (1976). Peek-a-boo and the learning of rule structures. In J. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play—Its role in development and evolution (pp. 277–285). New York: Basic Books.
Bullowa, M. (Ed.). (1979).Before speech. New York Cambridge University Press.
Campos, J. J. (1983). The importance of affective communication in social referencing: A commentary on Feinman. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 29, 83–87.
Campos, J. J., Barrett, K. C., Lamb, M. E., Goldsmith, H. H., & Stenberg, C. (1983).Socioemotional development. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 783–915). New York: Wiley.
Campos, J. J., & Stenberg, C. R. (1981). Perception, appraisal and emotion: The onset of social referencing. In M. E. Lamb & L. R. Sherrod (Eds.), Infant social cognition (pp. 273–314). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Camras, L. A. & Sachs, V. B. (1991). Social referencing and caretaker expressive behavior in a day care setting. Infant Behavior and Development, 14, 27–36.
Chandler, M., Fritz, A. S., & Hala, S. M. (1989).Small-scale deceit: Deception as a marker of two-, three-and four-year-olds’ early theories of mind. Child Development, 60,1263–1277.
Cirillo, A. (1990).Selectivity in affective and instrumental infant social referencing. Unpublished Honors Thesis, Clark University.
Clark, R. A. (1978). The transition from action to gesture. In A. Lock (Ed.), Action, gesture and symbol (pp. 231–257). New York: Academic Press.
Cohn, J. F., & Tronick, E. Z. (1983). Three-month-old infants’ reaction to simulated maternal depression. Child Development, 54, 185–193.
Collis, G., & Schaffer, H. R. (1975). Synchronization of visual attention in mother-infant pairs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16, 315–320.
Dickstein, S. & Parke, R. D. (1988). Social referencing in infancy: A glance at fathers and marriage. Child Development, 59, 506–511.
Eckerman, C. O., Davis, C. C., & Didow, S. M. (1989). Toddlers’ emerging ways of achieving social coordinations with a peer. Child Development, 60, 440–453.
Eckerman, C. O., & Stein, M. R. (1990). How imitation begets imitation and toddlers’ generation of games. Developmental Psychology, 26, 370–378.
Fafouti-Milenković, M. (1980).Communicative exchanges between mothers and infants in early infancy. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Clark University, Worcester, MA.
Fafouti-Milenković, M., & Užgiris, I. Č. (1979). The mother-infant communication system. In I. Č. Užgiris (Ed.), Social interaction and communication during infancy (pp. 41–56). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fein, G. G. (1975). A transformational analysis of pretending. Developmental Psychology, 11, 291–296.
Feinman, S. (1982). Social referencing in infancy. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 28, 445–470.
Feinman, S. (1985). Mother knows best—but sometimes I know better: Emotional expression, social referencing and preparedness for learning in infancy. In G. Zivin (Ed.), The development of expressive behavior: Biology-environment interactions (pp. 291–318). New York: Academic Press.
Feinman, S., & Lewis, M. (1983). Social referencing at ten months: A second-order effect on infants’ responses to strangers. Child Development, 54, 878–887.
Field, T. M., & Waiden, T. A. (1982).Production and perception of facial expressions in infancy and early childhood. In H. Reese & L. P. Lipsitt (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 16, pp. 169–211). New York Academic Press.
Field, T. M., Woodson, R., Cohen, D., Greenberg, R., Garcia, R., & Collins, K. (1983). Discrimination and imitation of facial expressions by term and preterm neonates. Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 485–489.
Gaensbauer, T. J., & Hiatt, S. (1984). Facial communication of emotion in early infancy. In N. A. Fox & R. J. Davidson (Eds.), The psychobiology of affective development (pp. 207–229). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gunnar, M. R., & Stone, C. (1984). The effects of positive maternal affect on infant responses to pleasant, ambiguous, and fear-provoking toys. Child Development, 55, 1231–1236.
Gusella, J. L., Muir, D., & Tronick, E. Z. (1988). The effect of manipulating maternal behavior during an interaction on three-and six-month-olds’ affect and attention. Child Development, 59, 1111–1124.
Harding, C. G., & Golinkoff, R. M. (1979). The origins of intentional vocalizations in prelinguistic infants. Child Development, 50, 33–40.
Hay, D. F., Murray, P., Cecire, S., & Nash, A. (1985). Social learning of behavior in early life. Child Development, 56, 43–57.
Hirshberg, L. M. & Svejda, M. (1990). When infants look to their parents: I. Infants’ social referencing of mothers compared to fathers. Child Development, 61, 1175–1186.
Hodapp, R. M., Goldfield, E. C., & Boyatzis, C. J. (1984). The use and effectiveness of maternal scaffolding in mother-infant games. Child Development, 55, 772–781.
Hubley, P., & Trevarthen, C. (1979). Sharing a task in infancy. In I. Č. Užgiris (Ed.), Social interaction and communication during infancy (pp. 57–80). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kaitz, M., Meschulach-Sarfaty, O., Auerbach, J., & Eidelman, A. (1988). A reexamination of newborns’ ability to imitate facial expressions. Developmental Psychology, 24, 3–7.
Kaye, K. (1979).Thickening thin data: The maternal role in developing communication and language. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech (pp. 191–206). New York Cambridge University Press.
Kaye, K. (1982). The mental and social life of babies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Killen, M., & Uzgiris, I. C. (1981). Imitation of actions with objects: The role of social meaning. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 138, 219–229.
Klinnert, M. D., Campos, J. J., Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., & Svejda, M. J. (1983).Emotions as behavior regulators: Social referencing in infancy. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 2. Emotions in early development (pp. 57–86). New York Academic Press.
Kruper, J. C., & Užgiris, I. Č. (1984, April). Maternal speech to infants in the first year of life. Poster presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, New York.
Kruper, J. C. & Užgiris, I. Č. (1987). Fathers’ and mothers’ speech to young infants. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 16, 597–614.
Leslie, A. M. (1987).Pretense and representation: The origins of “theory of mind.” Psychological Review, 94, 412–426.
Leung, E. H. L., & Rheingold, H. L. (1981). Development of pointing as social gesture. Developmental Psychology, 17, 215–220.
Lewis, M. (1990). Social knowledge and social development. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 36, 93–116.
Lewis, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1979). Toward a theory of social cognition: The development of self. In I. Č. Užgiris (Ed.), Social interaction and communication during infancy (pp. 1–20). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lewis, M., & Michalson, L. (1983).Children’s emotions and moods: Developmental theory and measurement. New York Plenum.
Lewis, M., Stanger, C., & Sullivan, M. W. (1989). Deception in 3-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 25, 439–443.
Malatesta, C. Z., Grigoryev, P., Lamb, C., Albin, M., & Culver, C. (1986).Emotion socialization and expressive development in preterm and full-term infants. Child Development. 57, 316–330.
Malatesta, C. Z., & Haviland, J. M. (1982). Learning display rules: The socialization of emotion expression in infancy. Child Development, 53, 991–1003.
Masur, E. F. (1988). Infants’ imitation of novel and familiar behaviors. In T. R. Zentall & B. G. Galef (Eds.), Social learning: Psychological and biological perspectives (pp. 301–318). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
McCabe, M., & Užgiris, I. Č. (1983). Effects of model and action on imitation in infancy. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 29, 69–82.
McCall, R. B., & McGhee, P. E. (1977).The discrepancy hypothesis of attention and affect in infants. In I. Č. Užgiris & F. Weizmann (Eds.), The structuring of experience (pp. 179–210). New York Plenum.
McCall, R. B., Parke, R. D., & Kavanaugh, R. D. (1977).Imitation of live and televised models by children 1-3 years of age. Monographs of the Society for Research and Child Development, 42, (5, Serial No. 173).
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1985). Immediate and deferred imitation in fourteen and twenty-four-monthold infants. Child Development, 56, 62–72.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1988). Infant imitation after a 1-week delay: Long-term memory for novel acts and multiple stimuli. Developmental Psychology, 24, 470–476.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1983).The origins of imitation in infancy: Paradigm, phenomena, and theories. In L. P. Lipsitt (Ed.), Advances in infancy research (Vol. 2, pp. 263–300). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Press.
Murphy, C. M. (1978). Pointing in the context of a shared activity. Child Development, 49, 371–380.
Murphy, C. M., & Messer, D. J. (1977). Mothers, infants and pointing: A study of gesture. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction (pp. 325–354). London: Academic Press.
Nadel-Brulfert, J., & Baudonniere, P. M. (1982). The social function of reciprocal imitation in 2-year-old peers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 5, 95–109.
Newson, J. (1974). Towards a theory of infant understanding. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 17, 251–257.
Newson, J. (1979). Intentional behavior in the young infant. In D. Shaffer & J. Dunn (Eds.), The first year of life (pp. 91–96). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Papoušek, H., & Papoušek, M. (1977).Mothering and the cognitive headstart: Psychobiological considerations. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction (pp. 63–85). New York: Academic Press.
Papoušek, H., & Papousek, M. (1987).Intuitive parenting: A dialectic counterpart of the infants’ integrative competence. In J. D. Osofsky (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Pawlby, S. J. (1977). Imitative interaction. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction (pp. 203–224). New York: Academic Press.
Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood (C. Gattego & F. M. Hodgson, Trans.). New York: Norton. (Original work published 1945)
Poulson, C. L., Nunes, L. R. P., & Warren S. F. (1989). Imitation in infancy: A critical review. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior.Vol. 22 (pp. 271–298). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Ramirez, C. & Užgiris, I. Č. (1990, April). Social referencing during imitation. Poster presented at the International Conference of Infant Studies, Montreal, Canada.
Ratner, N., & Bruner, J. S. (1978). Games, social exchange, and the acquisition of language. Journal of Child Language, 5, 391–401.
Rodgon, M. M., & Kurdek, L. A. (1977). Vocal and gestural imitation in 8-, 14-, and 20-month-old children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 131, 115–123.
Ross, H. S., & Kay, D. A. (1980).The origins of social games. K. Rubin (Ed.), Children’s play (pp. 17–31). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ross, H. S., & Lollis, S. P. (1987). Communication within infant social games. Developmental Psychology, 23, 241–248.
Scaife, M., & Bruner, J. S. (1975). The capacity for joint visual attention in the infant. Nature, 253, 265–266.
Schaffer, H. R. (1979). Acquiring the concept of the dialogue. In M. Bornstein & W. Kessen (Eds.), Psychological development from infancy: Image to intention (pp. 279–305). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sexton, M. E. (1983). The development of the understanding of causality in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 201–210.
Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 21, 195–200.
Squadron, D., & Užgiris, I. Č. (1985).Imitation of alternatives offered by mother and stranger. Unpublished manuscript, Clark University, Worcester, MA.
Sroufe, L. A. (1979).Socioemotional development. In J. D. Osofsky (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (pp. 462–516). New York Wiley.
Sugarman-Bell, S. (1978). Some organizational aspects of preverbal communication. In I. Markova (Ed.), The social context of language (pp. 49–66). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Trevarthen, C. (1977).Descriptive analyses of infant communicative behavior. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction (pp. 227–270). New York Academic Press.
Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description of primary intersubjectivity. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech (pp. 321–347). New York Cambridge University Press.
Trevarthen, C., & Hubley, P. (1978). Secondary intersubjectivity: Confidence, confiding, and acts of meaning in the first year. In A. Lock (Ed.), Action, gesture and symbol (pp. 183–257). New York: Academic Press.
Tronick, E., Als, H., & Adamson, L. (1979).Structure of early face-to-face communicative interactions. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech (pp. 349–370). New York Cambridge University Press.
Tronick, E., Als, H., Adamson, L., Wise, S., Brazelton, T. B. (1978). The infant’s response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. Journal of Child Psychiatry, 17, 1–13.
Tronick, E., Als, H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1980). Monadic phases: A structural analysis of infant-mother face-to-face interaction. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 26, 3–24.
Užgiris, I. Č. (1972).Patterns of vocal and gestural imitation in infants. In F. J. Monks, W. W. Hartup, & J. de Witt (Eds.), Determinants of behavioral development (pp. 467–471). New York Academic Press.
Užgiris, I. Č. (1979).Die Mannigfaltigkeit der Imitation in der Frühen Kindheit [The many faces of imitation in infancy]. In L. Montada (Ed.), Brennpunkte der Entwicklungspsychologie [Focal issues in developmental psychology]. Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer.
Užgiris, I. Č. (1981).Two functions of imitation during infancy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 4,1–12.
Užgiris, I. Č. (1983).The role of imitation in pre-verbal communication. Final Report to the Spencer Foundation (7-1-1981-7-31-1983).
Užgiris, I. Č. (1984). Imitation in infancy: Its interpersonal aspects. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.), The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, vol. 17: Parent-child interactions and parent-child relations in child development (pp. 1–32). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Užgiris, I. Č. (1991). The social context of infant imitation. In M. Lewis & S. Feinman (Eds.), Social influences and socialization in infancy (pp. 215–251). New York: Plenum.
Užgiris, I. Č., Benson, J. B., Kruper, J. C., & Vasek, M. (1989).Contextual influences on imitative interactions between mothers and infants. In J. J. Lockman & N. L. Hazen (Eds.), Action in social context: Perspectives on early development (pp. 103–127). New York Plenum.
Užgiris, I. Č., Benson, J. B., Vasek, M. (1983, April). Matching behavior in mother-infant interaction. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Detroit.
Waiden, T. A., & Ogan, T. A. (1988).The development of social referencing. Child Development, 59,1230–1240.
Watson, M. W., & Fischer, K. W. (1977). A developmental sequence of agent use in late infancy. Child Development, 48, 828–836.
Zarbatany, L., & Lamb, M. E. (1985). Social referencing as a function of information source: Mothers versus strangers. Infant Behavior and Development, 8, 25–33.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Užgiris, I.Č., Kruper, J.C. (1992). The Links between Imitation and Social Referencing. In: Feinman, S. (eds) Social Referencing and the Social Construction of Reality in Infancy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2462-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2462-9_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2464-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2462-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive