Inhibition Room

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The initial twelve minutes of free play represented the first of three inhibition episodes. The free-play session provided an opportunity to observe the child’s willingness to explore an unfamiliar room, as indexed, for example, by latency to leave mother and latency to approach novel toys. After approximately three minutes, the first of three empathy stimuli occurred. The sound of a baby crying was broadcast into the room from a speaker for approximately 30 seconds. The mother was instructed to respond to the child’s bids for attention or reassurance but otherwise to continue filling out the questionnaires. About five minutes later, at a time when the child was away from mother’s side, the second empathy probe was administered. The mother was signaled to act as if her finger had been injured on a clipboard in her lap. The same injury/recovery sequence was followed as in the home visit.

After a total of 12 minutes, the second inhibition probe was administered. A female stranger holding a high interest toy entered the room. She maintained a downcast gaze as she sat on the floor several feet from the-child. At one minute intervals, she increased her activity with the toy until 4 minutes had elapsed. If the child had not approached the stranger after 4 minutes, the stranger raised her gaze and verbally invited the child to play. The stranger left after engaging in play with the child for 2 minutes. Following this the third and final empathy probe began. The examiner returned to the room and feigned an injury to her foot as she repositioned a chair. After recovering, the examiner opened the cabinet, which housed a large discrepant object (a flurry monster at 14 months and a tin can robot at 20 months). Presentation of the discrepant object was the third inhibition episode. The child was invited to approach and explore the object.