Page 54 - Designing Sociable Robots

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Insights from Developmental Psychology 35

short pauses of varying duration. At other times she presents a series of markedly different
acts or vocalizations that occupy nearly identical time slots. This simplifies the complexity of
the stimulus the infant encounters by holding many of the features fairly constant while only
varying a small number. This also helps to make the caregiver’s behavior more predictable
for the infant.
Timing and contingency During social interactions, the caregiver adjusts the timing of
her responses to make her responses contingent upon those of her infant, and to make his
responses seemingly contingent upon hers. To accomplish this, she is very aware of her
infant’s physiological and psychological limitations and carefully observes him to make
adjustments in her behavior. For instance, when talking with her infant she fills his pauses
with her own utterances or gestures, and purposely leaves spaces between her own repetitive
utterances and gestures for him to fill (Newson, 1979). She intently watches and listens for
newinitiativesfromhim,andimmediatelypauseswhenshethinksthatheisabouttorespond.
By doing so, she tries to establish or prolong a run of alternations between herself and her
infant, sustaining his interest, and trying to get him to respond contingently to her (Kaye,
1979). During the interchange, each partner’s movements and vocalizations demonstrate
strong synchronization both within their turn and even across turns (Collis, 1979). Namely,
the infant entrains to the caregiver’s speech and gestures, and vice versa. This helps to
establish an overall rhythm to the interplay, making it smoother and more synchronized
over time.
Establishing games It is important that each caregiver and infant pair develop its own
set of conventional games. To paraphrase Kaye (1979), these games serve as the foundation
of future communication and language-learning skills. They establish the process of defining
conventions and roles, set up a mutual topic-comment format, and impose consistency and
predictability on dyadic routines. These ritualized structures assist the infant in learning how
to anticipate when and how a partner’s behavior will change. Much of the social experience
the infant is exposed to comes in the form of games. In general, games serve as an important
form of scaffolding for infants.
From these scaffolded interactions, the infant very quickly learns how to socially ma-
nipulate people who care about him and for him. For instance, he learns how to get their
attention, to playfully engage them, and to elicit nurturing responses from them. This is pos-
sible because his caregiver’s scaffolding acts continually allow him to experience a higher
level of functioning than he could achieve on his own. As he learns the significance his
actions have for others, these initiatives become more deliberate and intentional. He also
gradually begins to take on a more equal role in the interaction. For instance, he begins
to adjust his timing, imitate his caregiver, and so forth (Tronick et al., 1979). As noted by
Kaye (1979, p. 204), “This in turn gives him even finer control over the adult’s behavior, so