Search

Twelve-week-old infants were given a battery of perceptual-cognitive tasks. These tasks included the Corman-Escalona Scales of Object Permanence, the Mental Development Index of the Bayley Scales, and an attention task measuring habituation and dishabituation. The data failed to show any sex or social class differences, although the MDI was affected by birth order with first borns showing superior performance. In general these three measures of perceptual-cognitive ability were unrelated. These data are used to question the notion of a “g” factor in infancy and therefore the usefulness of a test of infant intelligence.

Naive observers coded facial behaviors (eye direction, eye openness, and mouth) of 40 infants from videotapes of the infant's face and upper torso as the infants watched the approach of a stranger. Patterns of facial movement show that the infants are interested, their eyes remain forward, are slightly wide or normal and the mouth is relaxed. This pattern occurs significantly more often than any other. Indications of fear (mouth contracted or corners down, gaze aversion, eyes very wide) and joy (eyes a bit wide, mouth corners up, looking ahead) were blended with interest, but did not occur in isolation. No age differences were found in this analysis. Sex differences were found in patterns of eye openness. The results were contrasted with previous findings of infant “fear” and were compared to adult reactions in similar stranger approach situations.

Infants respond differentially, and at times with fear-like behavior, to unfamiliar persons. This study was designed to see how infants discriminate among strangers. Since it has been shown that infants respond differently to children and adults, the physical characteristics of persons used to make such differentiations were of interest. Facial configuration and height were systematically varied as five different strangers–a male and a female child, a male and a female adult, and a small adult female the same height as the children (midget)–each approached 40 different infants. The infants responded as if there were three classes of persons–adults, children, and small adults. Infants as young as seven months of age reacted to the size-facial configuration discrepancy of the small adult condition.

Attachment studies vary along several dimensions. Time within the situation may be an important variable. Fifteen minutes of observation of year-old infants and their mothers reveals that proximity seeking and vocalization increase as a function of time while visual regard remains constant. The time dimension must be taken into account when studying sex differences as well as inconsistencies across various studies.

Groups of normal and “at risk” infants were given an attentional task using sucking suppression as an index of attending. Attending as a measure of perceptual-cognitive development was found to be a sensitive task capable of differentiating high and low risk infants. Further, the performance on this perceptual-cognitive task and the infants' 5 minute Apgar scores were assessed and found to be significantly related. These data together with earlier reports suggest that infants with Apgar scores of 8 or less may be at risk in terms of their cognitive development.

State is one of those psychological constructs which is widely used, carries meaning for commerce, and yet, when carefully con sidered, is rather difficult to define. It is clearly an important charac teristic of human behavior and is probably one of the more important variables distinguishing the living from the inanimate, such as ma chines. Yet, its definition is most difficult and soon gives way to sim ple taxonomy. State is usually considered, first of all, as a continuum of be havior, reflecting some underlying condition. This condition is usually defined along either an arousal continuum or a consciousness con tinuum. In contemporary psychology the notion of consciousness— as the entire issue of phenomenology—has been neglected, so most investigations deal with state in terms of arousal. Duffy's (1962) de finition of arousal demonstrates the breadth of this concept. It is conceived as a generalized drive state providing, for example, the intensity dimension of the emotions, the alertness factor in intelli gence, and the general level of reactivity to stimulation—a rather inclusive dimension. The consciousness continuum is less well de fined, but has within it the notion of awareness—either internal or external (see Hilgard, 1969). Given that state is usually defined as an arousal continuum, it would be easy to define state explicitly as some continuum in a speci fic behavioral area of choosing that continuum as a function of the model of behavior we wish to employ. Thus, if one were talking about brain function, one would discuss state (and state changes) in terms of EEG or REM behavior during various levels of sleep. Construction of autonomic nervous system models would describe state in terms of heart rate level, while activity models would measure movement, smiling, and sucking changes. Attention could be considered a state 1This research is supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant #GB-8590. and an Early Childhood Research Council Grant. Recognition is to be given to Pamela Sarett and Yvonne Watson for data collection, and to Cornelia Wilson for data analysis. * Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.

Resting cardiac rate and variability were obtained on a group of subjects seen first in the last trimester of prenatal life and over the first year of postnatal life. Maternal cardiac rate and variability were also obtained. The data indicate no relationship between maternal and fetal or infant data. Moreover, there are clear developmental patterns of resting cardiac response over the first year of life with rate and variability showing linear decreases.

Seventeen sets of opposite sex twins, 13 to 14 months old, were observed in a playroom situation with their mothers. Attachment behaviors, toy preference, style of play, and activity level were recorded. Analysis of four attachment behaviors indicated that girls looked at, vocalized to, and maintained proximity with their mothers significantly more often than did their brothers. Girls also touched their mothers more often, although this difference was not significant. The style of play and activity level measures revealed no sex differences. In terms of specific toy preferences, girls tended to play with the cat and dog more, while boys tended to play more with the pull toy. No other differences in toy preference were found. The effects of social class, activity level, and separation from the mother on infant attachment behavior are discussed. The importance of the mother as a socializing and sex-typing agent is stressed.

Data from infants unable to complete the experimental sessions were compared to those for whom there were complete data. The results suggest that the elimination of large numbers of infants may have a potentially biasing effect on reported data.

The issue of infant intelligence as a unitary concept was attacked. Using data from three different tests of infant intelligence, it was shown that infant intelligence is neither unitary nor stable over the first two years of life. Implications for intervention programs were discussed in light of the failure to produce meaningful criterion measures of intelligence.

This study was interested in determining whether (1) novelty produces greater or less attention than familiarity and incongruity, and (2) if children's labeling behavior was related to their attentive behavior. Using 3- to 5-year-old children, the results indicate that attention, at least for the stimuli presented, is an increasing function from familiar to incongruous to novel. Moreover, Ss' speed and accuracy of labeling was related to their attentive behavior with familiar stimuli producing mostly correct labels with short latencies while incongruous or novel stimuli produced mostly incorrect or no labels with long latencies. These results were discussed in relationship to the concept of novelty.

The role of state in determining a psychological or physiological response is not disputed. However, a few studies using neonates and young infants have paid much attention to this variable. This study was designed to investigate state differences in the newborn's cardiac response to a tactile stimulus. The results indicated: (1) the infant when asleep showed significantly different cardiac response than when awake. This replication demonstrates that an infant's state must be considered in any work using heart rate response. (2) In the present study, six cardiac response parameters were observed and it was clear that not all these measures of the cardiac response yield similar results and that the response parameter E chooses to use will determine the degree of habituation found and the nature of the response curve. (3) In general, there were differences in habituation between the waking and sleeping infant.

Fifty-two 44-month-old children were observed in a nursery school over a period of two weeks. Peer and adult oriented behaviours were recorded, and data were analysed in terms of subjects' sex and birth order. Sex effects were as expected, but birth-order effects highlighted the second-born child as representing a distinct category. In particular, second-born children manifested greater dependency behaviour than either first- or later-borns. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between maternal responsiveness to attention seeking behaviour in infancy and later dependency behaviour.

Forty-nine first-grade boys were variously exposed to social deprivation or social satiation, and were subsequently either socially reinforced or non-socially reinforced. In a probability learning paradigm, only those Ss who had been socially deprived and then socially reinforced matched input or maximized. Results are interpreted in terms of social drive theory. Implications for the development of self-mediated reinforcement are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to outline some applications of a mathematical concept known as a Markov Process to the study of such developmental concepts as state and state changes. Vocalization states were defined which reflected the joint occurrence of an infant's behavior (or condition) along with some associative event(s) in the infant's immediate environment. (The infants were three months old.) These concepts were then applied to data sequences collected in a naturalistic setting (the infant's home) for the purpose of studying the types of mother-infant interactions that occur in vocalization behavior.

Caretaker-infant interaction within the first year of life was studied in a group of ten Wolof infants. Using observational techniques as well as standard testing procedures, several results emerge: The pattern of caretaker-infant interaction was more strongly related to age of infant than any other variable investigated. The often-found result that African infants show precocious development within the first year was confirmed for the Wolof. No relationship between the interaction measures and tests of cognitive and motor skills was found.

In the present study approximately 15 boy and 15 girl infants, Caucasian and from a lower socioeconomic background, were seen in a free play situation exactly replicating the Goldberg and Lewis (1969) study. Social class and sex differences were explored in attachment behavior to mother and play behavior. Social class differences in vocalization were observed which suggested that the linguistic deficiency usually reported for the lower class is visible by one year of age. Sex differences in attachment behavior were again observed and indicated that across different social classes one-year-old girls show more attachment behavior than boys.

Twenty children, 10 boys and 10 girls, were seen at one and two years of age in a free play situation. At each age each infant first played with one parent and then a week later with the other. Attachment behavior (proximal and distal modes) was observed and found to be affected by the sex of infant and sex of parent. Moreover, Bayley Mental Maturity Index obtained at two years was found to be correlated with certain patterns of attachment behavior over the first two years of life. These findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory and the etiology of sex differences in interpersonal relations.

Data from a variety of infant intelligence test scores make clear that it is not possible to consider (1) that infant intelligence is a measurable, stable and unitary construct, (2) that there is a general g factor easily discernible in infancy, (3) that there is stability of scores both within and across scales, or (4) that there is predictability across age. These facts are discussed for their implications for models of intelligence, the use of intelligence tests in infancy, and finally intervention programs. It is concluded that the implicit model of general intelligence rests upon its function for society rather than its scientific merit. An alternative model of infant development is offered which is related to the acquisition of specific skills, the learning of which is dependent upon the match between the subject and the nature of the learning experience.

The investigation of infants' responses to strange has not been very well examined. Particularly, almost no work has been done on infants' responses to social events: different categories of people. Infants between 8 and 18 months of age were introduced to five different social events: strange adult male and female, strange 4-year-old female, mother, and self. The infants' responses indicated that approach affects stimulus differentiation (in terms of fear), while age effects level of response intensity. Strangeness of the social event was not sufficient to explain the results, and ethological and cognitive theories were discussed. It was suggested that the cognitive construct of self be introduced to explain the results. It appears reasonable to assume that by 8 months the self as differentiated from other is well established. Moreover, we propose that some specific categories of self, such as size, sex, or efficacy, may be established as well.

Almost no work exploring the effects of stimulus onset and offset is to be found, especially if one looks at the problem in a developmental manner. In order to investigate this problem, a total of 62 infants within the first year of life were seen: 22, 20, and 20 subjects at 12, 24, and 52 weeks respectively. Each infant received seven trials, 30 seconds in duration, with a 30-second intertrial interval. The first six trials consisted of the same auditory signal–a C chord at 65 db–while the seventh trial was either a C tone or a C chord with the base notes muted (dull), both at 65 db. Heart rate was continuously monitored along with other measures not reported in this paper. Amount of deceleration was used as the primary response. The data indicate several important results: (1) a consistent and rather large degree of deceleration; this for both onset and offset. (2) For 3- and 6-month-olds the terminal OR is less than the onset OR, while the 12-month-olds show greater terminal than onset OR. (3) Habituation of the onset OR follows a developmental pattern, with 3-month-olds showing the least habituation and 12-month-olds showing the most. (4) Habituation of terminal OR also shows a developmental trend, with the 3- and 6-month-olds showing habituation while 12-month-olds showed little habituation. The recovery data results for the seventh trial indicate that some changes are more effective than others.

Publisher Summary The interaction of the infant and its mother reflects a finely tuned and potentially meaning-laden system wherein each allows the other to act. The infant-maternal vocalization data would seem to parallel that of two adults. Vocalization–vocalization pairing is the most common interaction; however, smiling, looking at and fret/cry are instrumental in eliciting and reinforcing a member's vocalization. The communication matrix makes clear that a vocalization can be the response of or the elicitor of behaviors other than a vocalization; any model used to study the interactive quality of the vocalization between members of a dyad would need to consider it. The inclusion of all behaviors in any interactive model results in a complex picture. Linguistic competency grows out of the communication matrix and the study of language development must emphasize the issue of function rather than structure. It is believed that context is the prime carrier variable for shared meaning. A complex conditional probability matrix would go a long way in telling the important measures of a communication system, which can predict subsequent vocalization measures.

The present paper concerns itself with the various aspects of the mother-infant interaction. While amount and variety of stimulation are recognized as important parameters influencing development, the argument is made that a contingency relationship resulting in a generalized expectancy on the part of the infant is, by far, more important. Briefly, if the mother responds consistently and with short latencies she helps develop within the infant an expectation that his action can be effective in influencing his environment. This expectation, as a generalized expectancy, provides the motivation for additional environmental interaction and cognitive development. Data from a study of mother-infant interaction and tests of cognitive development at three months support this hypothesis.

To investigate the effects of various changes on the magnitude of the OR, two pairs of stimuli were used such that for each pair, each stimulus served as the repeated event for one group of Ss and as the altered event for another. It was predicted that stimulus change resulting in increased stimulus intensity would result in a larger OR than stimulus change resulting in decreased intensity. Chromatic and achromatic stimuli were used to test this hypothesis and the results confirmed this notion. The second set of stimuli, varying in contour, tested the hypothesis that changes independent of intensity should affect OR magnitude. The results support this view and suggest that the salience of the change in terms of the organism's hierarchy of interest must be included in a complete analysis of the magnitude of an OR.

Thirty-two boys and 32 girls, 13 months old, were observed with their mothers in a standardized free play situation. There were striking sex differences in the infants' behavior toward their mothers and in their play. Earlier observation of the mothers' behavior toward the infants at six months indicates that some of these sex differences were related to the mothers' behavior toward the infants. It was suggested that parents behave differently toward girls and boys, even as infants, reinforcing sex appropriate behavior. This study emphasizes the importance of observing the freely emitted behavior of the very young child.

A factor analytic technique was applied to the attentional data from a visual episode presented longitudinally at 6, 13, 25 and 44 months of age. Two factors were Identified: an orienting factor, consisting of fixation, cardiac deceleration, and cessation of activity, and an affect factor, consisting of smiling, vocalizing, and cardiac deceleration.