Michael (8 months old) startled when sarah's father came in the door. he relaxed after he looked at his care teacher's face and saw that she was smiling. he was judging the safety of the situation through:

The answer to this question is social referencing

social referencing refers to the proccess when infants observes the behavior and occurences that happens within their environment. (through observing their parent's behavior or by interracting with the environment). This process ins really important in developing infants' understanding of the world around them.