Mireault Gina C, Crockenberg Susan C, Sparrow John E, Cousineau Kassandra, Pettinato Christine, Woodard Kelly
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT 05656, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2015 Aug;136:30-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.03.012. Epub 2015 Apr 17.
Smiling and laughing appear very early during the first year of life, but little is known about how infants come to appraise a stimulus as humorous. This short-term longitudinal study explored infant humor perception from 5 to 7 months of age as a function of parental affect during an absurd event. Using a within-participants design, parents alternated smiling/laughing with emotional neutrality while acting absurdly toward their infants. Group comparisons showed that infants (N = 37) at all ages smiled at the event regardless of parental affect but did so significantly longer at 5 and 6 months, and more often and sooner at 7 months, when parents provided humor cues. Similarly, sequential analyses revealed that after gazing at the event, 7-month-olds were more likely to smile at it only when parents provided humor cues and were comparatively more likely to look away when parents were neutral. Thus, starting at 5 months of age, parental affect influenced infants' affect toward an absurd event, an effect that was magnified at 7 months. These results are discussed in the context of emotional contagion, regulation, and the emergence of social referencing.
微笑和大笑在生命的第一年很早就出现了，但对于婴儿如何将一种刺激评估为幽默却知之甚少。这项短期纵向研究探讨了5到7个月大婴儿的幽默感知，将其作为在一个荒诞事件中父母情感的函数。采用参与者内设计，父母在对婴儿做出荒诞行为时，交替表现出微笑/大笑和情绪中立。组间比较表明，所有年龄段的婴儿（N = 37）都会对该事件微笑，无论父母的情感如何，但在5个月和6个月时微笑的时间明显更长，在7个月时，当父母提供幽默线索时，微笑的频率更高且更早。同样，序列分析显示，在注视该事件后，只有当父母提供幽默线索时，7个月大的婴儿才更有可能对其微笑，而当父母表现中立时，他们相对更有可能看向别处。因此，从5个月大开始，父母的情感会影响婴儿对荒诞事件的情感，这种影响在7个月时会放大。这些结果将在情绪感染、调节以及社会参照的出现的背景下进行讨论。
