Building Language Learning: Relations Between Infant Attention and Social Contingency in the First Year of Life

Authors

• Lillian R. Masek, Temple University
• Elizabeth V. Edgar, Florida International University
• Brianna T.M. McMillan, Smith CollegeFollow
• James Torrence Todd, Florida International University
• Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware
• Lorraine E. Bahrick, Florida International University
• Kathy A. Hirsh-Pasek, The Brookings Institution

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2024

Publication Title

Infant Behavior and Development

Abstract

In Western societies, social contingency, or prompt and meaningful back-and-forth exchanges between infant and caregiver, is a powerful feature of the early language environment. Research suggests that infants with better attentional skills engage in more social contingency during interactions with adults and, in turn, social contingency supports infant attention. This reciprocity is theorized to build infant language skills as the adult capitalizes on and extends the infant’s attention during socially contingent interactions. Using data from 104 infants and caregivers, this paper tests reciprocal relations between infant attention and social contingency at 6- and 12-months and the implications for infant vocabulary at 18-months. Infant attentional skills to social (women speaking) and nonsocial (objects dropping) events were assessed, and social contingency was examined during an 8-minute toy play interaction with a caregiver. Child receptive and expressive vocabulary was measured by caregiver-report. Both social and nonsocial attentional skills related to engagement in social contingency during caregiver-infant interaction, though only models that included social attention and social contingency predicted vocabulary. These findings provide empirical evidence for the proposed reciprocal relations between infant attention and social contingency as well as how they relate to later language.

Volume

75

Rights

Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY 4.0 under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.

Version

Author's Accepted Manuscript

Recommended Citation

Masek, Lillian R.; Edgar, Elizabeth V.; McMillan, Brianna T.M.; Todd, James Torrence; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Bahrick, Lorraine E.; and Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy A., "Building Language Learning: Relations Between Infant Attention and Social Contingency in the First Year of Life" (2024). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/259