Atsuko Nakagawa

Difficulty in disengaging from threat and temperamental negative affectivity in early life: A longitudinal study of infants aged 12-36 months

BackgroundAttention disengagement is reportedly influenced by perceiving a fearful facial expression even in the first year of life. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in disengaging from fearful expressions predict temperamental negative affectivity.MethodTwenty-six infants were studied longitudinally at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months, using an overlap paradigm and two temperament questionnaires: the Japanese versions of the revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire and Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire.ResultsThe infants fixated significantly more frequently to fearful than to happy or neutral faces. The attentional bias to threat (i.e., the number of fixed responses on fearful faces divided by the total number of fixed responses on faces) at 12 months was significantly positively correlated with negative affect at 12 months, and its relations with negative affect measured later in development was in the expected positive direction at each age. In addition, a moderation analysis indicates that the orienting network and not the executive network marginally moderated the relation between early attentional bias and later fear.ConclusionsThe results suggest that at 12 months, infants with more negative affectivity exhibit greater difficulty in disengaging their attention from fearful faces. We also found evidence that the association between parent-reported fear and disengagement might be modulated in the second year, perhaps because of the differences in temperamental control networks.

Early Temperament in Japan, the United States, and Russia: Do Cross-Cultural Differences Decrease With Age?

The present study addressed differences in infant and toddler temperament, utilizing translations of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised (IBQ-R) and the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ), for children growing up in the United States, Russia, and Japan. Results indicated a number of significant differences in higher-order dimensions and fine-grained components of early temperament between the three cultural groups. U.S. children scored higher for Surgency and related traits, compared to Japanese and Russian children; Negative Affectivity showed the opposite pattern of cross-cultural differences, wherein Japanese children received the highest scores from their caregivers. In addition, Japanese infants and toddlers scored lower for Effortful Control. Significant Culture × Age interactions indicated that patterns of cross-cultural differences in different age groups varied across and within the three higher-order dimensions. Surgency, as well as positive affect to both low and high levels of intensity, showed a consistent pattern of decreasing cultural differences with age.

Individual differences in disengagement of fixation and temperament: Longitudinal research on toddlers

It has been suggested that a shift occurs in the brains control system from the orienting network in infancy to the executive network by the age of 3-4 years; however, there has been little empirical evidence of this shift during toddlerhood. Therefore, the present study examined how the orienting system in infancy is related to an effortful control system at a later age. Children were assessed longitudinally at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age, using a gap-overlap task in which dynamic geometrical-shape stimuli were presented. Parents completed temperament questionnaires about the children at each age. A delayed-gratification task was also given to 36-month-olds. Overall, saccadic latencies in the gap-overlap task were significantly faster at 36 months. At all ages, responses were slower during overlap trials than during gap or no-overlap trials. Longer latencies in the overlap condition were associated with low temperamental orienting/regulation scores at 12 months but with high effortful control scores at 18 and 24 months. The associations at 18 and 24 months are thought to represent a genuine positive association between effortful control and sustained and focused attention.

Development of a Japanese Version of the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) Using Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data

The present article describes the development of a Japanese version of the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ). The influence of social desirability on the Japanese ECBQ was investigated using a cross-sectional sample (N = 318). The effects of gender and developmental changes in temperament were investigated in a longitudinal sample (N = 191). A three-factor structure was found in the instrument, the three factors being Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity, and Effortful Control. These factors were the same as those found in the original ECBQ. Social desirability showed less influence on the Japanese ECBQ, indicating the instrument was free from culture-based construct bias. This longitudinal study highlighted that Japanese toddlers have quieter, more withdrawn, and more passive temperaments, a finding that supports that of previous research comparing temperament-scale means between Japanese and U.S. children.

Variable coordination of eye and head movements during the early development of attention: a longitudinal study of infants aged 12-36 months.

This longitudinal study investigated the effects of attentional development on peripheral stimulus localization by analyzing the eye and head movements of toddlers as they matured from 12 to 36 months. On each trial of an experiment, a central fixation point and a 30° peripheral stimulus were presented, such that in the gap condition the fixation disappeared 300 ms before the peripheral stimulus, whereas in the no-overlap condition it disappeared simultaneously as the peripheral stimulus, and in the overlap condition the fixation remained present when the peripheral target occurred. Results showed that eye and head movement latencies were highly correlated in all conditions and ages. However, at 12 months, head movements were as fast as eye movements, whereas during the subsequent development, eye movements became increasingly faster than head movements. These findings are indicative of a transition between 12 and 36 months due either to a change in attentional control, or to changes in the size of the visual field in which only eye movements occur.

The temporal relationship between reduction of early imitative responses and the development of attention mechanisms

BackgroundTo determine whether early imitative responses fade out following the maturation of attentional mechanisms, the relationship between primitive imitation behaviors and the development of attention was examined in 4-month-old infants. They were divided into high and low imitators, based on an index of imitation. The status of attention was assessed by studying inhibition of return (IOR). Nine-month-old infants were also tested to confirm the hypothesis.ResultsThe IOR latency data replicate previous results that infants get faster to produce a covert shift of attention with increasing age. However, those 4-month-olds who showed less imitation had more rapid saccades to the cue before target presentation.ConclusionThe cortical control of saccade planning appears to be related to an apparent drop in early imitation. We interpret the results as suggesting a relationship between the status of imitation and the neural development of attention-related eye movement.

Visual word form familiarity and attention in lateral difference during processing Japanese Kana words.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between familiarity and laterality in reading Japanese Kana words. In two divided-visual-field experiments, three- or four-character Hiragana or Katakana words were presented in both familiar and unfamiliar scripts, to which subjects performed lexical decisions. Experiment 1, using three stimulus durations (40, 100, 160 ms), suggested that only in the unfamiliar script condition was increased stimulus presentation time differently affected in each visual field. To examine this lateral difference during the processing of unfamiliar scripts as related to attentional laterality, a concurrent auditory shadowing task was added in Experiment 2. The results suggested that processing words in an unfamiliar script requires attention, which could be left-hemisphere lateralized, while orthographically familiar kana words can be processed automatically on the basis of their word-level orthographic representations or visual word form.

Relations between Temperament, Sensory Processing, and Motor Coordination in 3-Year-Old Children.

Poor motor skills and differences in sensory processing have been noted as behavioral markers of common neurodevelopmental disorders. A total of 171 healthy children (81 girls, 90 boys) were investigated at age 3 to examine relations between temperament, sensory processing, and motor coordination. Using the Japanese versions of the Childrens Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), the Sensory Profile (SP-J), and the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (LDCDQ), this study examines an expanded model based on Rothbarts three-factor temperamental theory (surgency, negative affect, effortful control) through covariance structure analysis. The results indicate that effortful control affects both sensory processing and motor coordination. The subscale of the LDCDQ, control during movement, is also influenced by surgency, while temperamental negative affect and surgency each have an effect on subscales of the SP-J.

Relations between Temperament and Metacognition and Frames of Reference in Behaviors in Public Situations in Early and Middle Adolescence: An Analysis of Age Stages

We conducted a questionnaire survey using a cross-sectional sample of early and middle adolescents aged 10 to 15 (N = 351) in order to investigate relationships between temperament, metacognition, and frames of reference in behaviors in public situations. The sample was divided into two groups by age (Early-adolescence group:10–12; Middle-adolescence group:13–15) and were analyzed by Multiple Group Structural Equation Modeling. Explanatory variables were four components of temperament (Effortful Control, Affiliativeness, Surgency, and Negative Affect) and Metacognition. Objective variables were three components of frames of reference in behaviors in public situations (Egocentrism, Neighborhood Evaluation, and Public Values). In both age groups, Effortful Control had a negative effect on Egocentrism, and Surgency had a negative effect on Neighborhood Evaluation. However, only in the middle-adolescence group did Affiliativeness and Negative Affect have significant effects on Public Values. Meanwhile, metacognition in the early-adolescence group had a positive effect on Egocentrism and Neighborhood Evaluation, but these relations disappeared in the middle-adolescence group, and only in the middle-adolescence group did Metacognition have a positive effect on Public Values. We discuss frames of reference in behaviors in public situations from the viewpoint of the development of social cognition in early and middle adolescence in relation to temperament and metacognition.

The Effects of Soothing Techniques and Rough-and-Tumble Play on the Early Development of Temperament: A Longitudinal Study of Infants

A total of 189 infants (93 girls, 96 boys) were investigated longitudinally at ages 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months to examine the effects of soothing techniques (i.e., distracting infants by presenting novel objects) and rough-and-tumble play on the early development of temperament, particularly the emergence of Effortful Control. We used questionnaires to examine the frequency of use of soothing techniques and rough-and-tumble play. The Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) and the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) were used to assess temperament. A strong relationship was found between parental ratings of their infants Orienting/Regulation and later Effortful Control. Caregivers’ use of distracting as a soothing technique during infancy was associated with higher Negative Affect in toddlers at 24 months. More surgent infants were involved in more rough-and-tumble play, with rough-and-tumble play frequencies positively correlated with surgency scores at 24 months.