Parental presence switches avoidance to attraction learning in children

Attachment-related learning (that is, forming preferences for cues associated with the parent) defies the traditional rules of learning in that it seems to occur independently of apparent reinforcement1—young children prefer cues associated with their parent, regardless of valence (rewarding or aversive), despite the diversity of parenting styles2. This obligatory attraction for parental cues keeps the child nearby and safe to explore the...