Psychology In The News: Smartphones and Infants

You may have studied the still-face paradigm as part of your learning about the Attachment topic. The still-face paradigm is designed to study the effects of disrupted interaction on infant behaviour and development. There are three phases to the still-face paradigm:

1. Face-to-face interaction: the parent engages in normal, face-to-face interaction with the infant.
2. Still-face episode: the parent then assumes a neutral, unresponsive "still" face and does not respond to the infant's attempts at interaction for a brief period (usually 1-3 minutes).
3. Reunion: the parent resumes normal interactive behaviour with the infant.

During the still-face episode, infants typically show signs of distress and protest. When the parent resumes interaction, infants often have difficulty re-engaging. The still-face paradigm demonstrates how sensitive infants are to disruptions in the reciprocity of social interaction. Furthermore, the still-face paradigm provided early evidence of how important sensitive responsiveness is for the development of emotional development.

Research by Tidemann and Melinder (2022) investigated how interruptions in parent-infant interactions due to parental smartphone use affect infant behaviour. The authors developed the "Smartphone Procedure" (SPP), modelled after the classic still-face paradigm, where a parent interrupts their interaction with their infant to simulate being absorbed in a smartphone.

In the SPP, there were three phases:

1) Normal parent-infant interaction

2) Parent interrupts the interaction by shifting attention to their handheld to the side (to simulate mobile phone use) while making a neutral face

3) Parent resumes normal interaction. 51 infants across ages 6, 9, and 12 months were involved in the study.

The key findings were that during the interrupted interaction phase (2), infants across all age groups showed significantly increased protest behaviour (for example: crying, trying to escape their chair) and decreased positive social engagement (for example: smiling, vocalisations) compared to baseline.

Importantly, infant protest behaviour remained elevated even after the reunion phase, never returning to baseline levels. The authors interpret these findings as demonstrating that interrupted parental responsiveness causes infant distress and discomfort, mirroring the classic still-face effect.

No effects of infant age were found, suggesting even young infants are sensitive to disruptions in communication. The authors highlight increasing smartphone use could potentially compromise parent-infant bonding opportunities. They call for guidelines promoting mindful technology habits that preserve infant-caregiver interactions.

Source: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibra...

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. This study was about caregiver-infant interactions. Outline two examples of caregiver-infant interactions.
2. The study described was conducted in a laboratory setting, why might this be a problem? Relate your answer to the topic of study in this research.
3. In the evaluation of their study, the authors note that the simplicity of their ‘smartphone procedure’ should allow for replication. What is meant by replication?
4. Before the ‘smartphone procedure’ parents were asked to self-report their smartphone usage, why could this be problematic?
5. How could this research have practical applications?