Peekaboo: A new look at infants' perception of emotion expressions

Infants' responsiveness to others' affective expressions was investigated i n the context of a peekaboo game. Forty 4-month-olds participated in a peek aboo game in which the typical happy/surprised expression was systematicall y replaced with a different emotion, depending on group assignment. Infants viewed three typical peekaboo trials followed by a change (anger, fear, or sadness) or no-change (happiness/surprise) trial, repeated over two blocks . Infants' looking time and affective responsiveness were measured. Results revealed differential patterns of visual attention and affective responsiv eness to each emotion. These results underscore the importance of contextua l information for facilitating recognition of emotion expressions as well a s the efficacy of using converging measures to assess such understanding. I nfants as young as 4 months appear to discriminate and respond in meaningfu l ways to others' emotion expressions.