This study investigated a novel approach to obtaining data on parent and infant emotion during the Face-to-Face/Still-Face paradigm, and examined these data in light of previous findings regarding early autism risk. One-hundred and eighty eight non-expert students rated 38 parents and infant siblings of children who did (20) or did not (18) have autism spectrum disorders. Ratings averaged across 10 non-experts exhibited high concordance with expert facial-action codes for infant emotion, and 20 non-experts were required for reliable parent ratings. Findings replicated the well-established still-face effect and identified subtle risk associations consonant with results from previous investigations. The unique information offered by intuitive non-expert ratings is discussed as an alternative to complex and costly behavioral coding systems.
Adamson, L.B., & Frick, J.E. ( 2003). The still face: A history of a shared experimental paradigm . Infancy, 4, 451-473.
2.
Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. ( 1992). Thin slices of expressive behavior as predictors of interpersonal consequences: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 256-274.
3.
Bates, J.E., Maslin, C.A., & Frankel, K.A. ( 1985). Attachment security, mother- child interaction, and temperament as predictors of behavior-problem ratings at age three years. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, 167-193.
4.
Bendersky, M., & Lewis, M. ( 1998). Arousal modulation in cocaine-exposed infants. Developmental Psychology, 34, 555-564.
5.
Braungart-Rieker, J., Garwood, M.M., Powers, B.P., & Wang, X. ( 2001). Parental sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation: Predictors of later attachment. Child Development, 72, 252-270.
6.
Campos, J.J., Mumme, D.L., Kermoian, R., & Campos, R.G. ( 1994). A functionalist perspective on the nature of emotion . Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 59, 284-303.
7.
Camras, L.A. ( 1992). Expressive development and basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6, 269-283.
8.
Cassel, T., Messinger, D.S., Ibanez, L., Haltigan, J.D., Acosta, S., & Buchman, A. ( 2007). Early social and emotional communication in the infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 122-132.
9.
Chow, S., Haltigan, J.D., Messinger, D.S. (in press). Dynamic infant-parent affect coupling during the Face-to-Face/Still-Face . Emotion.
10.
Cohn, J.F., Campbell, S.B., & Ross, S. ( 1991). Infant response in the still-face paradigm at 6 months predicts avoidant and secure attachment at 12 months. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 367-376.
11.
Dinehart, L.H.B., Messinger, D.S., Acosta, S.I., Cassel, T., Ambadar, Z., & Cohn, J. ( 2005). Adult perceptions of positive and negative infant emotional expressions. Infancy, 8, 279-303.
12.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. ( 1978). The facial action coding system. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
13.
Feldman, R. ( 2007). Parent-infant synchrony: Biological foundations and developmental outcomes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 340-345.
14.
Feldman, R., Greenbaum, C.W., & Yirmiya, N. ( 1999). Mother-infant affect synchrony as an antecedent of the emergence of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 35, 223-231.
15.
Feldman, R., Greenbaum, C.W., Yirmiya, N., & Mayes, L.C. ( 1996). Relations between cyclicity and regulation in mother-infant interaction at 3 and 9 months and cognition at 2 years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 17, 347-365.
16.
Gottman, J.M., & Levenson, R.W. (1985). A valid measure for obtaining self-report of affect. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 151-160.
17.
Izard, C., & Dougherty, L. ( 1980). A system for identifying affect expressions by holistic judgements (AFFEX). University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
18.
Jaccard, J. ( 1998). Interaction effects in factorial analysis of variance . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19.
Jaccard, J., & Guilamo-Ramos, V. (2002). Analysis of variance frameworks in clinical child and adolescent psychology: Issues and recommendations . Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 130-146.
20.
Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., & Carlson, J.J. ( 2005). Temperament, relationships, and young children’s receptive cooperation with their parents. Developmental Psychology , 41, 648-660.
21.
Kochanska, G., Forman, D.R., & Coy, K.C. ( 1999). Implications of the mother- child relationship in infancy socialization in the second year of life. Infant Behavior & Development, 22, 249-265.
22.
Landa, R., Holman, K.C., & Garret-Mayer, E. (2007). Social and communication development in toddlers with early and later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 853-864.
23.
Larrick, R.P., & Soll, J.B. ( 2006). Intuitions about combining opinions: Mis- appreciation of the averaging principle. Management Science, 52, 111-127.
24.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P.C., & Risi, S. ( 1999). Autism Diagnostic Observation System. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
25.
Merin, N., Young, G.S., Ozonoff, S., & Rogers, S. ( 2007). Visual fixation patterns during reciprocal social interaction distinguish a subgroup of 6-month-old infants at-risk for autism from comparison infants. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 108-121.
26.
Mesman, J., van IJzendoorn, M.H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. (2009). The many faces of the Still-Face Paradigm: A review and meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 29, 120-162.
27.
Messinger, D., & Fogel, A. ( 2007). The interactive development of social smiling. In R. Kail (Ed.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 35, 327-366. Oxford : Elsevier.
28.
Messinger, D.S., Mahoor, M., Chow, S., & Cohn, J.F. ( 2009). Automated Measurement of Facial Expression in Infant-Mother Interaction: A Pilot Study. Infancy, 14, 285-305.
29.
Moore, G.A., Cohn, J.F., & Campbell, S.B. (2001). Infant affective responses to mother’s still face at 6 months differentially predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors at 18 months. Developmental Psychology , 37, 706-714.
30.
Oster, H. ( 2000). Baby FACS: Facial Action Coding System for Infants and Young Children. Unpublished monograph and coding manual. New York University.
31.
Oster, H. ( 2005). The repertoire of infant facial expressions: An ontogenetic perspective. In J. Nadel, D. Muir, J. Nadel , & D. Muir (Eds.), Emotional development: Recent research advances. (pp. 261-292). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
32.
Osterling, J., Dawson, G., & Munson, J. ( 2002). Early recognition of one year old infants with autism spectrum disorder versus mental retardation: A study of first birthday party home videotapes. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 239-252.
33.
Siller, M., & Sigman, M. ( 2002). The behaviors of parents of children with autism predict the subsequent development of their children’s communication. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 77-89.
34.
Surowieki, J. ( 2004). The wisdom of crowds. New York, NY : Doubleday. Tronick, H., Als , H., Adamson, L., Wise, S., & Brazelton, B. (1978). The infant’s response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. American Academy of Child Psychiatry , 17, 1-13.
35.
Tronick, E., Ricks, M., & Cohn, J.F. ( 1982). Maternal and infant affective exchange: Patterns of adaptation . In T. Field & A. Fogel (Eds.), Emotion and early interaction (pp. 83-100). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36.
van Ijzendoorn, M., Rutgers, A., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M., van Daalen, E., Dietz, C., Buitelaar, J., & van Engeland, H. (2007). Parental sensitivity and attachment in children with autism spectrum disorder: Comparison with children with mental retardation, language delays, and typical development . Child Development, 78, 597-608.
37.
Waldinger, R.J., Schulz, M.S., Hauser, S.T., Allen, J.P., & Crowell, J.A. ( 2004). Reading others’ emotions: The role of intuitive judgments in predicting marital satisfaction, quality, and stability. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 58-71.
38.
Weinberg, M.K., & Tronick, E.Z. ( 1996). Infant affective reactions to the resumption of maternal interaction after the still-face. Child Development, 67, 905-914.
39.
Weinberg, M.K., Tronick, E.Z., Cohn, J., & Olson, K.L. ( 1999). Gender differences in emotional expressivity and self-regulation during early infancy. Developmental Psychology, 35, 175-188.
40.
Yirmiya, N., Gamliel, I., Pilowsky, T., Feldman, R., Baron Cohen, S., & Sigman, M. ( 2006). The development of siblings of children with autism at 4 and 14 months: Social engagement, communication, and cognition. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 511-523.
41.
Yirmiya, N., & Ozonoff, S. ( 2007). The very early autism phenotype. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1-11.
42.
Zwaigenbaum, L., Bryson, S., Rogers, T., Roberts, W., Brian, J., & Szatmari, P. ( 2005). Behavioral manifestations of autism in the first year of life. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience , 23, 143-152.
43.
Zwaigenbaum, L., Thurm, A., Stone, W., Baranek, G., Bryson, S., Iverson, J., et al. (2007). Studying the emergence of autism spectrum disorders in high-risk infants: Methodological and practical issues. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 466-480.
