Answer:
social referencing.
Explanation:
Social referencing refers to the process wherein infants use the affective displays of an adult to regulate their behaviors toward environmental objects, persons, and situations. Social referencing represents one of the major mechanisms by which infants come to understand the world around them.
In the last quarter of the first year, infants become capable of integrating interpersonal communication with objects and situations in the environment. Infants in this period are capable of viewing their parents as teachers and sources of knowledge about the environment; thus, there is true two-person communication about third events, including people and objects in the environment, which yields meaning about the world to the infant. With newly acquired knowledge about environmental events, infants are capable of regulating their behaviors toward people and objects in accordance with the appraisals given them by caregivers.
