Infant behavioural effects of smartphone interrupted parent-infant interaction.

Infants are vulnerable to changes in the dyadic synchrony with their caregivers, as demonstrated in numerous experiments employing the still-face paradigm. The sudden lack of attunement causes infant stress reactions and the still-face literature have suggested potential long-term costs of this in terms of development of social, emotional and cognitive skills. Acknowledging the rapid technological development accompanied by altered practices in the parent-infant interaction, the current study investigates infant behavioural reactions in a similar experimental paradigm, manipulating parental responsiveness and sensitivity in a slightly different manner. In the current study, the parent interrupts the ongoing interaction, simulating occupation with a smartphone, rather than making a 'still-face'. In a cross-sectional design, infants of six, nine and twelve months display increased levels of protest behaviour in response to the interrupted interaction with their parent, together with lowered levels of positive engagement and social monitoring, suggesting similar behavioural responses as the still-face effect. Implications for infant social and emotional development, as well as for mindful tech habits are discussed.

The Emotional Child Witness Effect Survives Presentation Mode.

The emotional witness effect - the phenomenon whereby people are affected by the emotional manner in which a witness presents testimony - constitutes a possible source of wrongful decisions in legal contexts. One stereotypical view of abused children is that they should be sad when talking about their experiences of maltreatment, whereas children may in fact express a variety of emotional expressions when talking about abusive events. This raises the question as to whether there is an optimal mode in which to present child victim testimony that could reduce the possible influence of displayed emotions. In the present study, mock police interviews were carried out with female child actors, role-playing the victims of physical abuse by their stepfather, telling the same story with four emotional expressions (neutral, sad, angry, or positive). Laypersons (N = 465) were presented with the interviews as transcripts with the emotional reactions of the child witness noted, audio recordings, or videotaped recordings. Participants then rated the credibility of the victim witness. Replicating previous results, the "sad" expression elicited the highest credibility ratings across all modes of presentations. Presentation mode affected ratings of credibility, with the transcript versions resulting in the highest ratings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.