Infants' memory for contingently responding persons

334 INFANTS’ MEMORY FOR CONTINGENTLY RESPONDING PERSONS Ann E. Bigelow Department of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5 Twenty-nine infants between 3 and 5 months old were shown videos of two strangers. One was interacting contingently with the infant and one was a replay of a stranger interacting with another infant. Eighteen infants met the criterion for the memory task by attending to the contingent stranger one and a half times longer than to the noncontingent stranger. One week later these infants were shown via video the same two strangers who were both interacting contingently with them. Infants retained their preference for the previously contingent stranger, even though both strangers were now contingent, suggesting that contingently responsive persons are preferentially remembered.