Maternal Physiological Response to Infant Signals

ABSTRACT The present study reports the use of maternal physiologic responses as an index of maternal attention to infant signals. Thirty‐two women, each of whom had a 3‐month‐old infant, were shown 10‐sec silent images on a videotape monitor of a 3‐month‐old infant, en face, exhibiting either a smiling or a crying facial expression. Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded continuously while each woman viewed a sequence of 6 identical episodes of one expression followed by 6 episodes of the other expression. Both cardiac and skin conductance responses to the smile expression decreased following repeated presentations of the cry stimulus. Cardiac deceleration to the cry was prolonged following the viewing of the smiling infant. Mothers' perception of their own infants' temperament assessed by the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire (1970) was systematically related to maternal heart rate response. Mothers who described their infants as more difficult were physiologically less sensitive to changes in infant expressions. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of infant signals upon developing mother‐infant reciprocity.