Toddlers regulate their behavior to avoid making adults angry

3 months ago
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Toddlers who overhear adults disagreeing can use that emotional information to guide their own behavior, according to research study from the Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences.

This re-enactment of the experiment begins with a warm-up trial as an experimenter shows a toy to a 15-month-old boy and then he gets a chance to play with them. Then a second adult, the "Emoter," enters the room. The experimenter shows her how to play with a toy, a strand of beads that make a rattling sound when dropped into a plastic cup. The Emoter calls these actions "aggravating" and "annoying." When the child has a chance to play with the beads and cup while the Emoter watches with a neutral facial expression, he doesn’t play with the toy. This demonstrates that he’s using the emotional information to regulate his own behavior.

The experiment was published in the October/November 2014 issue of the journal Cognitive Development with the title, "Infant, control thyself: Infants' integration of multiple social cues to regulate their imitative behavior." Credit: Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington.

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