Acebo C, Thoman E B
Biobehavioral Sciences Graduate Degree Program, University of Connecticut, Storrs 06269-4154, USA.
Physiol Behav. 1995 Mar;57(3):541-7. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(94)00345-6.
This study examines the communicative role of crying by assessing the ability of infants to indicate different degrees of distress in different social circumstances. Behaviors of mother-infant pairs were observed in the home for 7-h periods when the infants were 2, 3, 4, and 5 wk old; and three weekly observations were made when the infants were 1 yr old. A Cry Responsiveness Index (CRI) was derived to quantify the degree to which a baby cried differentially during each observation. This statistic showed significant individual differences. The CRI scores were correlated with maternal measures during the early weeks and negatively correlated with "mother ignore" at one year. The CRI scores were unrelated to the total amount of crying. The results indicate that responsive infants have responsive mothers--or conversely, that responsive mothers have responsive infants. Thus, cry responsiveness is not a function of infant behavior alone but is inherently an expression of the dynamics of the mother-infant interactional system.
本研究通过评估婴儿在不同社会环境中表明不同程度痛苦的能力，来考察哭泣的交流作用。当婴儿分别为2周、3周、4周和5周大时，在其家中对母婴对的行为进行了7小时的观察；当婴儿1岁时，每周进行三次观察。推导了一个哭声反应指数（CRI）来量化每次观察期间婴儿不同程度哭泣的程度。这一统计数据显示出显著的个体差异。CRI分数在婴儿早期与母亲的相关测量值相关，在一岁时与“母亲忽视”呈负相关。CRI分数与哭泣的总量无关。结果表明，反应灵敏的婴儿有反应灵敏的母亲——或者相反，反应灵敏的母亲有反应灵敏的婴儿。因此，哭声反应性并非仅仅是婴儿行为的作用，而是母婴互动系统动态的固有表现。
