The AICE member Eliala A. Salvadori, together with UvA researchers Cristina Colonnesi and Frans Oort (UvA) as well as Daniel Messinger (University of Miami), led a study in which they compared the development of infant visual, facial, and vocal communication patterns with strangers to infant communication with both mothers and fathers. They adopted a mixed-method design with longitudinal naturalistic observations, microanalytic coding of behavior across multiple communication modalities, and parental temperament reports. Their results not only indicated that mean levels of visual, facial, and vocal communication differed by partner, but also that levels of communication behavior with strangers were concurrently and longitudinally associated with communication with each parent, particularly fathers. Maternal and paternal perceptions of infant temperament consistently associated with the observed measures of infant communication behaviors across communication modalities and over time.

 Here is the abstract of the article:

Interaction with unfamiliar partners is a component of social life from infancy onward. Yet little is known about preverbal communication with strangers. This study compared the development of infant communication with strangers to communication with mothers and fathers and examined the contribution of temperament to partner-specific communication patterns. A sample of 58 infants was observed at four and eight months during separate home-based face-to-face interactions with three partners (mother, father, and stranger). Infant visual, facial, and vocal communication behaviors were coded microanalytically. Each parent reported on infant temperament at both ages. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that infants gazed longer at strangers than at fathers, exhibited less smiling to strangers than to mothers, and produced fewer vocalizations with strangers than with either parent. Both age and temperament moderated these differences: Vocal communication with fathers became more frequent at eight months; smiling to mothers was accentuated among infants with higher levels of temperamental surgency. Importantly, levels of communication behaviors with strangers were concurrently and longitudinally associated with those with mothers and fathers. Overall, findings suggest that infant emotional communication patterns are modulated by individual temperamental differences and are reproduced in and over time, though at different levels, when interacting with novel partners.

Link to the paper