Mother-infant relationship in the monkey, Macaca nemestrina: The effect of brief separation and mother-infant specificity.

Abstract

Observation of 2 mother-child pairs of Macaca nemestrina led to the conclusions: "1. Infant-directed behavior of mothers appears to be generally own-infant-specific. 2. Infants are not absolutely mother-specific, but they learn to be so after repeated separation and interaction with a strange mother. 3. Separation serves to increase the infant-directed behavior of the mother toward her own infant and the mother-seeking behavior of the infant for an initial period after they are reunited." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)