Long-term memory for an emotional interpersonal interaction occurring at 5 months of age

We examined infants' long-term retention of a single unique emotional experience into early childhood. Twenty-month-olds who had participated in a still-face procedure at 5 months (experience group) fixated the face of the person who had instigated the still face significantly less than the faces of 2 other novel persons. Control 20-month-olds (no-experience group) looked longer overall and fixated the target person equally or more than the 2 novel persons. In short, children who interacted with a stranger in the laboratory under both natural and anomalous social conditions just once when they were infants apparently retained a specific memory of that person and the experience into toddlerhood.