The affective mechanism underlying joint attention and joint action in infancy and toddlerhood

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Henrik Saalbach, since 5/2021
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421863042

In the current project The affective mechanism underlying joint attention and joint action in infancy and toddlerhood, we investigate the development of young children’s intrinsic motivation to engage with others.Cooperative interactions provide extrinsic material and social benefits to individuals who strive to maintain social relationships. Strikingly, toddlers engage in joint attention with and help others even in the absence of immediate extrinsic benefits. This raises the question whether interacting with others is in and by itself intrinsically rewarding for young children in the first two years of life. It was proposed that already infants are intrinsically motivated to share attention and goals with others. For instance, the capacity for joint attention develops between 7 and 9 months of age. However, to date little is known about the underlying emotional and motivational mechanisms of joint attention and joint action. Previous research captured children’s emotional responses predominantly via video coding of observable expressions including smiling. Here, we combine our expertise on state-of-the-art physiological and behavioral methodology to use facial electromyography (EMG) and posture tracking, to objectively assess infants’ and toddler’s affective responses during joint attention and joint action. In the project we use interactive eye tracking to put infants in a position to engage with an avatar. We manipulate, whether or not infants are successful in their attempts to initiate joint attention. We expect 10-month-olds to show positive affect during a successful interaction and will furthermore examine whether this positive affect is related to infants’ subsequent preference for interaction partners as well as infants’ information processing.In the project, we directly assess 10- to 24-months-old children’s emotions in the context of social interactions. We focus on two established phenomena of social interactions: collaboration and helping. We plan to investigate whether (1) observing collaboration and helping as well as (2) active collaboration and helping result in positive affect and (3) whether both emotional response are related. To this end we apply EMG and body posture tracking, two established measures of positive emotions.Through focusing on the underlying affective mechanism the results of both projects will provide profound insights into the early development of young children’s intrinsic motivation to interact with others.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Stefanie Höhl, Ph.D.
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Daniel Haun; Maleen Thiele
• Ehemalige Antragstellerinnen / Ehemalige Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Robert Hepach, until 10/2020; Dr. Christine Michel, from 10/2020 until 5/2021