Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/3658
Title: Neonatal responses to tongue protrusion and mouth opening modeling
Authors: Couturier-Fagan, Debra Ann
Keywords: Developmental psychology.
Issue Date: 1996
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Citation: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: B, page: 2173.
Abstract: In order to investigate neonatal imitation, 83 newborn infants were videotaped while Tongue Protrusion and Mouth Opening were modeled. The infants were exposed to four alternating 20-second demonstration and passive intervals for a total of 160 seconds per gesture. In a Control condition, infants were exposed to a passive face for the entire 160 seconds.;Videotapes were coded for the occurrence of tongue protrusions and mouth openings, and rated on 4-second scales for range and intensity of upper limb movement and extent of eye opening. The eye opening measure served as a rough assessment of alertness. The subjects received significantly higher eye ratings in the demonstration intervals than the passive intervals indicating they were attending to the modeled actions.;Findings indicate that in the Tongue Protrusion condition infants produced higher rates of tongue protrusions than mouth openings. With the more attentive subjects this effect occurred only in the demonstration interval, not in the passive intervals. But in the Mouth Opening condition the rate of mouth opening was not larger than the rate of tongue protrusion either in the demonstration intervals or in the passive intervals. These results suggest an immediate stimulus-matching reflexive response that is restricted to tongue protrusion. In the Control condition, a higher rate of tongue protrusion than mouth opening was found in the passive intervals, although not consistently. This may be due to a possible primitive coping, anxiety reducing reaction to the noninteractive pose.;In addition, three variables were intercorrelated across-intervals for each of the 83 subjects. Scores on three variables were averaged over 20-second intervals and included: combined oral gestures (tongue protrusions and mouth openings), limb movement, and eye opening. Each subject thus had three scores (oral, limb, & eye) in each of 16 intervals (320 seconds/20 seconds = 16). The oral limb r's for most subjects were positive and substantial (M =.46), suggesting that gross motor movements and oral gestures are stimulated by common processes. Limb and eye tended to be negatively correlated (M = {dollar}-{dollar}.20). This suggests some incompatibility between gross motor and visual activity, possibly due to temporal channel capacity limitations. The oral/eye correlations were found to be weakly positive (M =.11) suggesting that oral gestures partake in exploratory activity.
URI: https://ezproxy.yu.edu/login?url=http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:9623580
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/3658
Appears in Collections:Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology: Doctoral Dissertations

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