Abstract
Effects of contingent stroking were compared to effects of contingent tickling and poking on infant eye contact (attention) and affect during face-to-face interactions with an adult female. Twelve 2-to 4.5-mo-old infants participated in a within-subjects alternating-treatments design. Each subject received the two touch conditioning treatments in alternation within each of four consecutive sessions. In each session, three 2-min conditioning periods were implemented. Compared to tickling and poking treatment, during the systematic-stroking treatment all infants spent a greater proportion of time making eye contact with the experimenter, smiled and vocalized more and frowned and cried less.
