Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anticipatory Smiling: Linking Early Affective Communication And Social Outcome, Meaghan Venezia Parlade, Daniel S. Messinger, Christine E.F. Delgado, Marygrace Yale Kaiser, Amy V. Van Hecke, Peter C. Mundy

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

In anticipatory smiles, infants appear to communicate pre-existing positive affect by smiling at an object and then turning the smile toward an adult. We report two studies in which the precursors, development, and consequences of anticipatory smiling were investigated. Study 1 revealed a positive correlation between infant smiling at 6 months and the level of anticipatory smiling at 8 and 10 months during joint attention episodes, as well as a positive correlation between anticipatory smiling and parent-rated social expressivity scores at 30 months. Study 2 confirmed a developmental increase in the number of infants using anticipatory smiles between 9 and …