Social and Cognitive Determinants of Mutual Gaze Between Mother and Infant

Abstract

The value of eye contact in social communication is demonstrated by the great number of studies investigating the attractiveness of eyes for human infants (K. Bloom, 1974; Hainline, 1978; Robson, 1967; Samuels, 1985; Wolff, 1961). Mutual visual interaction is in effect the earliest opportunity the mother-infant dyad has for communication. From birth infants can control the flow of visual stimuli, maintaining visual fixation for interesting stimuli and diverting it from too familiar or too intense inputs (Cohen, 1973; Fantz, 1966). This capacity also applies to social contact; therefore, social exchanges between mother and infant by means of mutual gaze¹ create the first dyadic system in which the two individuals have similar control (Stern, 1971, 1974b).