Abstract Maternal responsivity is important to caregiving, reflecting a mother's capacity to initiate prompt behavioural responses to infant's cues, supporting the infant's own regulatory development. There is limited research examining cognitive and affective processes, including working memory and emotion regulation, in the context of maternal responsivity to infant distress. Therefore, we examined associations between working memory, emotion regulation, and behavioural responsivity to simulated infant distress in 61 mothers. Tests of direct and indirect effects showed (1) greater working memory capacity predicted increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal; (2) increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal predicted longer latency to pick-up a distressed infant simulator; and (3) greater working memory capacity indirectly, through increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal, predicted longer latency to infant distress. These findings indicate the importance of jointly considering maternal working memory and emotion regulation to understand their potential role in the assessment of, and behavioural response to, infant distress cues.

中文翻译：

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母亲的工作记忆、情绪调节和对婴儿痛苦的反应

摘要 母亲的反应性对于照料很重要，反映了母亲对婴儿的暗示做出迅速行为反应的能力，支持婴儿自身的调节发展。在母亲对婴儿痛苦反应的背景下，对认知和情感过程（包括工作记忆和情绪调节）的研究非常有限。因此，我们研究了 61 位母亲的工作记忆、情绪调节和对模拟婴儿痛苦的行为反应之间的关联。直接和间接影响的测试表明 (1) 更大的工作记忆容量预示着认知重新评估的参与度增加；(2) 认知重新评估的参与度增加预示着拿起一个不良婴儿模拟器的潜伏期更长；(3) 间接更大的工作记忆容量，通过增加认知重新评估的参与，预测婴儿痛苦的潜伏期更长。这些发现表明联合考虑母亲的工作记忆和情绪调节以了解它们在评估婴儿窘迫线索和对婴儿窘迫线索的行为反应中的潜在作用的重要性。