ations in frequency,intensity,duration,and temporal or spatial pattern-
ing of sounds (Papousˇek and Papousˇek 1981:171);that is,to emotional-
intonational aspects of the human voice (Locke 1993:369,416;Schore
1994).By at least two months they respond to rhythmically presented
facial and body movements as well (Beebe et al.1982;Trevarthen 1984,
1995).The robustness of this evolved capacity is evident in the ability
of even profoundly handicapped children or adults,totally physically
dependent and incapable of learning language,to respond to vocal and
facial expressions and body contact rhythms (action cycles) like those
used by mothers with young infants (Burford 1988).
Using analyses of recorded vocal interactions and frame-by-frame
(twenty-four/second) microanalyses of filmed face-to-face interactions
with babies three and four months of age,psychologists reveal that
mother and infant live in a split-second world where demonstrably
significant signals (events) in kinesic,facial, and vocal modalities
last approximately one-half second or less (Beebe,Stern,and Jaffe
1979:24;Beebe 1982:174;Beebe 1986:33,Feldstein et al.1993;Jaffe et al.
submitted).
By three to four months,levels of emotional engagement in both
partners can be defined by particular coordinations of spatial orienta-
tion,visual attention,facial expressivity,and type of temporal reactivity
(Beebe and Stern 1977;Beebe and Gerstman 1980).The mother’s facial
expressions are exaggerations of universal human adult expressions of
affiliation and invitation to contact (e.g.,look at,eyebrow flash,raise
eyebrows,bob head backward,smile,nod) that have precursors in other
primates (Schelde and Hertz 1994:386;Dissanayake 1996).Analyses of
these interactions show that each partner is sensitive to the affective
direction of the other’s behavior.In their actions and reactions,each is
able to enter the temporal world and feeling state of the other (Beebe
et al.1985;Beebe and Lachmann 1988a).
Together,mother and baby practice and perfect their attunement by
engaging in mutually improvised (jointly constructed) dyadic interac-
tions in which each partner tracks the durations of movements and holds
in emotionally expressive behaviors of face and body,or vocal phrases
and pauses (sounds and silences),of the other (Beebe,Jaffe,and
Lachmann 1992:72).Some sequences are coactive(i.e.,they occur almost
simultaneously);others overlap;in still others there is a short lapse
between the end of one partner’s behavior and the beginning of the
other’s,so that alternationor turn taking occurs.Both coactive and alter-
nating patterns occur in bouts or packages (Beebe and Gerstman 1984)
that last one and a half to three seconds.The rapidity with which these
sequences are performed suggests that they occur partly or fully out of
conscious control.391 Antecedents of the Temporal Arts