| Abstract: | Tested some predictions of social learning theory concerning the development of peer-oriented social behaviors of infants. Naturalistic observations were made of 32 pairs of 9-mo-old infants who were brought together in their own homes for 11 (experimental) or 2 (control) play sessions. Over 10 play sessions the experimental infants increased their peer-oriented behavior in complexity and in degree of social engagement while the controls did not. The increase in peer-oriented behavior generalized to a new play-session mate in the 11th session. Since the increase in peer-oriented behavior was not related to the amount of contingent responding elicited from the play-session mate but was related to the total amount of behavior received from the play-session mate, it is concluded that the increase occurred as a result of the infant having been exposed to the stimulating behavior of another infant, but was not an associative learning effect. The role of peer behavior as an eliciting stimulus is discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
