Meta-analytic evidence indicates that the quality of the attachment relationship that infants establish with their primary caregiver has enduring significance for socioemotional and cognitive outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which early attachment experiences contribute to subsequent development remain underspecified. According to attachment theory, early attachment experiences become embodied in the form of cognitive-affective representations, referred to as internal working models (IWMs), that guide future behavior. Little is known, however, about the cognitive architecture of IWMs in infancy. In this article, we discuss significant advances made in the field of infant cognitive development and propose that leveraging insights from this research has the potential to fundamentally shape our understanding of the cognitive architecture of attachment representations in infancy. We also propose that the integration of attachment research into cognitive research can shed light on the role of early experiences, individual differences, and stability and change in infant cognition, as well as open new routes of investigation in cognitive studies, which will further our understanding of human knowledge. We provide recommendations for future research throughout the article and conclude by using our collaborative research as an example.

中文翻译：

---

婴儿依恋的认知结构


荟萃分析证据表明，婴儿与其主要照顾者建立的依恋关系的质量对社会情感和认知结果具有持久的意义。然而，早期依恋经历促进后续发展的机制仍然没有得到充分说明。根据依恋理论，早期的依恋体验以认知-情感表征的形式体现出来，被称为内部工作模型（IWM），指导未来的行为。然而，人们对婴儿期 IWM 的认知结构知之甚少。在本文中，我们讨论了婴儿认知发展领域取得的重大进展，并提出利用这项研究的见解有可能从根本上塑造我们对婴儿期依恋表征认知结构的理解。我们还提出，将依恋研究整合到认知研究中可以阐明早期经历、个体差异以及稳定性和变化在婴儿认知中的作用，并在认知研究中开辟新的研究路线，这将进一步加深我们对人类知识的理解。我们在整篇文章中为未来的研究提供了建议，并以我们的合作研究为例作为结论。