Infant Behavior & Development 29 (2006) 131–135

Brief report

Happy faces are habituated more slowly

by infants of depressed mothers
Maria Hernandez-Reif a,∗ , Tiffany Field a , Miguel Diego a ,
Yanexy Vera a , Jeff Pickens b
a Touch Research Institutes, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami School of Medicine,
PO Box 016820 (D-820), Miami, FL 33101, USA
b St. Thomas University, Department of Psychology, Miami, FL, USA

Received 18 March 2005; received in revised form 19 July 2005; accepted 20 July 2005

Abstract
Three-month-old infants of depressed (n = 16) and non-depressed mothers (n = 16) were habituated to video clips of a female
model reciting phrases while posing happy or sad facial/vocal expressions and dishabituated to the alternate expressions. Overall,
infants of depressed mothers took longer to habituate the video clips compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, and those
assigned to habituate the sad video clips displayed a novelty response or dishabituated to the happy expressions. These findings
suggest that 3-month-old infants of depressed mothers discriminate sad from happy expressions, however, they do not appear to
perceive sad expressions as novel.
© 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Infants; Depressed mothers; Facial expression; Habituation

Neonates experience many faces and voices and within a few months, they display a range of expressions from
smiling and positive vocalizations to frowning, protesting and looking away. Typically, mothers’ expressions are the first
expressions that infants experience (Montague & Walker-Andrews, 2002; Nelson, Morse, & Leavitt, 1979), and they
come to expect a variety of expressions. Infants have been noted to behave negatively and show greater gaze aversion
when their mothers are expressionless or still-face during a face-to-face interaction (Gusella, Muir, & Tronick, 1988;
Stack, 2004), or when mothers are instructed to behave depressed (Cohn & Tronick, 1983). In contrast, infants of
depressed mothers under the same conditions behave the same regardless of whether their mothers were asked to
spontaneously play with their infants or were asked to behave depressed (Field, 1984).
In one study, involving mothers and strangers acting out live “mock” happy, surprise and sad facial expressions
(15 s each), 3- to 6-month-old infants of depressed mothers were less likely to look at the facial expressions displayed
by both their mother and a stranger, regardless of the affective display (Diego et al., 2004). In a habituation study
newborns of depressed mothers took longer to habituate their mothers’ face (Hernandez-Reif, Field, Diego, & Largie,
2002). These findings suggest that infants of depressed mothers may be slower at processing facial information, may
have difficulty discriminating facial expressions, or may be less interested in looking at faces.

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mhernan4@med.miami.edu (M. Hernandez-Reif).

0163-6383/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2005.07.003
132 M. Hernandez-Reif et al. / Infant Behavior & Development 29 (2006) 131–135

In the current study, we examined 3-month-old infants’ habituation of happy and sad facial/vocal expressions.
We expected that infants of depressed mothers would take longer to habituate the facial/vocal expressions if they
had difficulty attending to or learning facial expressions. We also hypothesized that because sad expressions may be
more novel for infants of non-depressed mothers, they may take longer to habituate the sad facial/vocal expressions
than the happy facial/vocal expressions. This view is also consistent with at least one study that found that infants of
non-depressed mothers looked longer at sad facial expressions than infants of depressed mothers (Field, Pickens, Fox,
Gonzalez, & Nawrocki, 1998). In contrast, because infants of depressed mothers are familiar with sad expressions, we
expected them to look longer at happy expressions.

1. Method

Thirty-nine mothers (M age = 28 years) and their 3-month-old infants (M age = 107.5 days) (n = 16 from depressed
mothers) participated in this study. The infants were typically developing, full-term healthy. The mothers were recruited
prenatally from a larger sample participating in a longitudinal study on maternal depression. The study had full
institutional review board approval by the university, and the women signed consent forms prior to being screened for
eligibility. Inclusion criteria included: (1) singleton pregnancy and (2) 18–35 years of age. Mothers were excluded if
they: (1) had pregnancy complications (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, etc.), (2) self-reported drug or alcohol use during
pregnancy, (3) had HIV or AIDS, and/or (4) had a mental disorder, other than depression or depression and co-morbid
anxiety (women with bipolar disorder were not recruited).
Pre- and postnatally, the mothers were asked to complete the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale
(CES-D; Radloff, 1977), which has a range of scores from 0 to 60, with 16 being the cutpoint for depressive symptoms.
Infants were assigned to a depressed (CES-D ≥ 16) or non-depressed group (CES-D = 3–12) based on their mother’s
CES-D score. Only mothers who did not cross over (e.g., from being depressed during pregnancy to being non-depressed
at 3-months or vice-versa) and who did not fall in the faking good (CES-D ≤ 2) or borderline range (CES-D = 13–15)
were recruited for the study.
The habituation stimuli consisted of four video clips of “happy” and “sad” facial/vocal expressions depicted in one
set (one happy and one sad video clip) by a brunette and in the other by a blonde woman. The women models were
videotaped from the neck up, and both had shoulder length hair and no jewelry. The models looked directly into the
camera and pretended to speak to a baby as they recited the same phrases for 6 min. The phrases recited were “Hello
baby . . . look at me baby . . . that’s a good baby. . . . Can you smile for me? . . . That’s a good baby.” For the happy
video clips, the women smiled and used motherese, or high pitched voices while reciting the phrases. For the sad video
clips, the women used a monotone voice, and their facial expressions were flat.
The habituation procedure was conducted in a semi-dark laboratory room, with the infant facing a television monitor
mounted on a cart. Half of the infants in each group were habituated to the “happy” video (brunette or blonde woman)
and dishabituated to the “sad” video of the same woman, and the other half of the infants in each group received the
reverse order.
A trained experimenter monitored infant looking during habituation through a cardboard peephole and (1) ini-
tiated the trial, (2) recorded infant looking and (3) determined when to terminate the trial. A trial was terminated
when the infant looked away from the screen for longer than a second, or after 60 s had elapsed of the infant
looking at the screen. Successive trials with the same video continued until looking on two consecutive trials
fell below 50% of baseline (habituation criterion). Baseline was computed as the average looking time for the
first two trials of habituation. After the infant met the habituation criterion, two post-habituation trials were pro-
vided using the same video. The post-habituation trials served to control for spontaneous recovery, which has been
reported following habituation (Bertenthal, Haith, & Campos, 1983). The post-habituation trials thus ensured that
the infant had habituated and also served as the comparison trials for the test (novel) trials. Following the post-
habituation trials, the infant received two novel test trials with the same model presenting the opposite expression.
Infant looking throughout the procedure was videotaped and later used to compute interobserver reliability, which
reached .93
The following summary scores were calculated for each infant and then averaged across each group to serve as
the dependent measures: (1) average looking on first two trials (baseline looking), (2) habituation length, or total
seconds to reach the habituation criterion, (3) number of trials to reach habituation, (4) average looking on the two
post-habituation trials, (5) average looking on the two novel test trials and (6) difference score, computed by subtracting
 M. Hernandez-Reif et al. / Infant Behavior & Development 29 (2006) 131–135 133

Table 1
Mean (and standard deviation in parenthesis) for habituation trials for infants of depressed vs. non-depressed mothers who habituated to the happy
vs. the sad film
Variables Infant group t-test (p-value)

Depressed Non-depressed

Habituation to happy film

Baseline 40.2 (17.4) 27.3 (12.3) .05
Sec to habituation 146.8 (49.4) 103.9 (48.4) .05
Number of trials to habituation 6.3 (2.2) 7.6 (1.9) .10
Post-habituation trial (s) 18.0 (10.2) 6.7 (4.8) .01
Test trials (sad) (s) 15.6 (10.7) 11.9 (10.6) .50
Difference Score (test minus posthab) −2.4 (10.2) 5.3 (11.2) .18
Habituation to sad film
Baseline 34.2 (16.2) 37.5 (18.7) .72
Sec to habituation 136.9 (69.3) 95.7 (36.8) .08
Number of trials to habituation 7.0 (2.2) 6.6 (3.0) .78
Post-habituation trial (s) 8.4 (5.7) 15.3 (13.3) .20
Test trials (happy) (s) 18.0 (15.2) 25.3 (19.7) .42
Difference Score (test minus posthab) 9.6 (12.5) 10.1 (11.6) .94

score 4 from score 5. A positive difference score indicated a novelty preference or greater looking during the novel test
trials compared to the post-habituation trials, suggesting that the infant discriminated the two expressions. A negative
difference score indicated a familiarity preference, or a preference for the post-habituation trials and less looking during
the novel trials. A zero difference score indicated null preference or equal looking to the post-habituation and novelty
test trials.

2. Results

The data for seven infants were rejected due to infant fussiness/crying (n = 4), experimenter error (n = 2) and unable
to habituate (n = 1). The background characteristics of those whose data were omitted did not differ from those of
the sample that was retained for the study (all ps > .10). Except for the CES-D score, which was used to classify
the depressed and non-depressed groups, the two groups of infants and their mothers did not differ on background
variables.
A MANOVA with group (depressed versus non-depressed) as the between groups factors and habituation expression
(sad versus happy) as the repeated measures factors was conducted on the six habituation measures. The MANOVA
revealed a group by habituation expression interaction effect, F(5,24) = 2.45, p = .06 (η2 = .34). Univariate tests revealed
(1) a significant main effect of group on seconds to habituation, with infants of depressed mothers taking longer
to habituate than infants of non-depressed mothers, F(1,31) = 5.15, p < .05, (2) a significant main effect of habit-
uation expression on the difference score, with greater overall recovery to happy (novel) test trials following sad
habituation trials, F(1,31) = 4.33, p < .05, and (3) a significant group by habituation expression interaction effect on
the post-habituation measure, F(1,31) = 7.86, p < .01, with post hoc analysis revealing longer looking during happy
post-habituation (M = 18 s) than during the sad post-habituation trials (M = 8.4 s) for infants of depressed mothers,
t(14) = 2.33, p < .02; and infants of non-depressed mothers showing the opposite looking pattern with longer looking
during sad post-habituation trials (M = 15.3 s) than during the happy post-habituation trials (M = 6.7 s), t(14) = 1.71,
p = .054.
Compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers: (1) looked longer during baseline
(trials 1 + 2) at the video clips of women depicting happy expressions (happy videos), (2) required more time (146 s
versus 103 s) to habituate the happy videos and, (3) looked longer on post-habituation happy expression trials (the
two trials prior to novel test trials). No group differences emerged for the sad expression trials, although there was a
trend again for the infants of depressed mothers to take longer to reach the habituation criterion (p = .08, two-tailed;
see Table 1).
134 M. Hernandez-Reif et al. / Infant Behavior & Development 29 (2006) 131–135

Infants of depressed mothers showed increased looking to the novel expression only when habituated to the sad
video clip, t(7) = 2.17, p < .05. Similarly, infants of non-depressed mothers dishabituated or showed longer looking to
the novel test trials when habituated to the sad video clip, t(7) = 2.44, p < .02

3. Discussion

In the current study, 3-month-old infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers were presented repeated trials
(habituation trials) of a video clip of a woman behaving “happy” or “sad”, followed by two post-habituation trials of
the same woman using the same facial expressions and reciting the same phrases (familiar) and two test trials of the
same woman again but now displaying the opposite facial expression (novel). Greater looking was expected to the
novel test trials (opposite facial expressions) over the familiar post-habituation trials if infants discriminated the two
facial expressions.
Overall, compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, infants of depressed mothers took longer to habituate the
video clips, and in particular they took longer to habituate the video clip of the happy facial expressions. A similar
finding of longer habituation to faces has been reported by our group for neonates of depressed mothers (Hernandez-
Reif et al., 2002). These findings across the newborn to 3-month periods support the view that as infants of depressed
mothers develop, they may have difficulty attending to and/or perceiving facial expressions, evidenced by their slower
habituation.
An unexpected order effect revealed that infants of depressed mothers discriminated sad from happy expressions,
but only if they had first habituated the sad face video. These findings suggest that 3-month-old infants of depressed
mothers discriminate happy from sad expressions, and that, they may not perceive sad expressions as novel.
The data for the infants of non-depressed mothers are also compelling and support prior research that young infants
discriminate happy from sad facial/vocal expressions. However, contrary to our hypothesis infants of non-depressed
mothers took the same length of time to habituate the happy and the sad video clips, although they looked twice as
long on post-habituation trials for the sad versus the happy facial expressions. The longer post-habituation time for
the sad expressions may suggest that typically developing infants may be less familiar with sad facial expressions.
Moreover, the comparable habituation length regardless of facial expression presented suggests that by 3-months of
age, infants may become familiar with a face in under 2 min time. Further research should be conducted to (1) replicate
these findings and (2) see if these findings are also evident for other facial expressions, such as anger or fear.
In sum, the findings from this study confirmed that infants of depressed mothers take longer to habituate faces/voices.
This critical finding raises new questions, such as (1) do infants of depressed mothers have visual and/or auditory sensory
or processing deficits, (2) if they have sensorial deficits, how long-lived are these deficits, and (3) is early intervention
necessary and what type of intervention might be effective? This study also confirmed that by 3-months of age, infants
discriminate happy from sad facial/vocal expressions and that infants of depressed mothers are less interested in looking
at sad expressions.

Acknowledgments

We thank the mothers and infants who participated in this study. We also thank the Research Associates who
assisted with recruitment and data collection. This research was supported by an NIMH Senior Research Scientist
Award (#MH00331) and an NIMH Merit Award (#MH46586) to Tiffany Field and funding from the Johnson and
Johnson Pediatric Institute.

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