Blinking When Talking Depends On The Receiver: The Case Of Mothers Feeding Infants

During nursing, a mother faces an infant who does not speak and hardly blinks. We established the eye-blinking rate in this special interactive context for comparison with the high rate repeatedly reported in between adult conversation. The 22 mothers we observed during bottle-feeding blinked much less-especially when talking to their infant-than when talking with another adult. Nursing may have put mothers in a state of concentration that inhibits blinking. So, we propose that the frequent blinks usually displayed during conversations may depend on intentions or expectations about the receiver, which maybe modulated by the affective state.