Claudia Freitag

How Crawling and Manual Object Exploration are Related to the Mental Rotation Abilities of 9-Month-Old Infants

The present experiment examined whether the mental rotation ability of 9-month-old infants was related to their abilities to crawl and manually explore objects. Forty-eight 9-month-old infants were tested; half of them had been crawling for an average of 9.3 weeks. The infants were habituated to a video of a simplified Shepard–Metzler object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the longitudinal axis of the object. They were tested with videos of the same object rotating through a previously unseen 120° angle and with a mirror image of the display. All of the infants also participated in a manual object exploration task, in which they freely explored five toy blocks. The results showed that the crawlers looked significantly longer at the novel (mirror) object than at the familiar object, independent of their manual exploration scores. The non-crawlers looking times, in contrast, were influenced by the manual exploration scores. The infants who did not spontaneously explore the toy blocks tended to show a familiarity preference, whereas those who explored the toy blocks preferred to look at the novel object. Thus, all of the infants were able to master the mental rotation task but it seemed to be the most complex process for infants who had no crawling experience and who did not spontaneously explore objects.

The development of 3- to 9-month-old infants in two cultural contexts: Bayley longitudinal results for Cameroonian and German infants

Based on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III, this study provides the results of a longitudinal study on the development of Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle-class infants. Complete longitudinal data were available for 253 infants (69 from Cameroon and 184 from Germany) with Bayley assessments at 3, 6 and 9 months. The results show large differences between Cameroonian Nso and German infants with regard to gross motor and language development. The developmental sequence within each Bayley scale is more in line with the original Bayley sequence for German than for Cameroonian Nso infants as is indicated by Goodman scalogram analyses. Path analyses show some basic similarities between the developmental paths across ages for Cameroonian Nso and German infants, but more interconnections between the scales in the German sample. The results underline the need to adjust developmental scales to the cultural background of the infants to be tested.

Mother–Infant Interactions at Home and in a Laboratory Setting: A Comparative Analysis in Two Cultural Contexts

This study addresses the question how the setting of assessment influences maternal playing behavior with their 3-month-old infants across cultures. Mother–infant interactions of 338 dyads from two cultural communities (German middle-class and rural Cameroonian Nso) were videotaped either in their home or in a laboratory setting. Results indicate that both settings of assessment are appropriate to observe cultural differences in maternal interactional behavior. As expected, rural Nso mothers show more proximal interactional behavior than German middle-class mothers, who focus more on distal behavioral strategies. The laboratory setting amplifies cultural differences by culture-specific effects on the playing behavior. Whereas rural Nso mothers show increased activities in the lab, German middle-class mothers’ behavior seems to be inhibited.

Infant development in two cultural contexts: Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle-class infants

Objective and Background: Cultures differ in their emphases on specific developmental milestones which may be associated with early developmental differences. This study compares the developmental states of three‐ and six‐month‐old Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle‐class infants assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Methods: The Bayley Scales were used with 345 three‐month‐old infants in Cameroon (n = 73) and Germany (n = 272). Most of the infants were reassessed at six months of age (n = 72 of the Cameroonian and n = 222 of the German infants). Results: The study showed significant differences in gross motor development in favour of the Cameroonian children and in receptive as well as expressive communication in favour of the German infants. These findings are consistent throughout both age samples. The cognitive and fine motor development is significantly advanced in the three‐month‐old German infants, but not at six months of age. Conclusion: The results are interpreted to reflect different socialisation strategies as a result of different cultural orientations of Cameroonian Nso and German middle‐class mothers and it is important to assess developmental pathways in multiple cultural environments, in order to gain an understanding of the encompassing conceptions of development.

The other-race effect in 3-year-old German and Cameroonian children.

Recognizing individual faces is an important human ability that highly depends on experience. This is reflected in the so called other-race effect; adults are better at recognizing faces from their own ethnic group, while very young infants do not show this specialization yet. Two experiments examined whether 3-year-old children from two different cultural backgrounds show the other-race effect. In Experiment 1, German children (N = 41) were presented with a forced choice paradigm where they were asked to recognize female Caucasian or African faces. In Experiment 2, 3-year-olds from Cameroon (N = 66) participated in a similar task using the same stimulus material. In both cultures the other-race effect was present; children were better at recognizing individual faces from their own ethnic group. In addition, German children performed at a higher overall level of accuracy than Cameroonians. The results are discussed in relation to cultural aspects in particular.

Imitative Learning of Nso and German Infants at 6 and 9 Months of Age: Evidence for a Cross-Cultural Learning Tool

The present study focused on the assessment of imitation performance in a large sample of 6- and 9-month-old infants from two different cultural contexts: German middle-class infants from urban areas and Nso infants from a rural area in northwestern Cameroon were tested by using age-adapted deferred imitation tasks that were varied regarding their cultural familiarity (two types of instruments each being highly familiar for one of the two cultural contexts). Within both cultural groups and without being influenced by the cultural familiarity of the instruments, infants performed more target actions in the test compared with the baseline phase, even though this difference did not yield significance in the group of 6-month-old Cameroonian Nso infants. Moreover, a higher mean number of imitated actions has been observed for 9-month-olds compared with 6-month-olds demonstrating an age-related improvement of infants’ learning ability. Furthermore, at 9 months of age, German infants showed a higher level of baseline activity compared with the infants in the Cameroonian sample, which is assumed to be based on differences regarding the degree of object experiences. Results provide evidence that early in infancy, imitation is a universal learning tool in different cultural environments.

Gross and Fine Motor Differences Between Cameroonian and German Children Aged 3 to 40 Months: Results of a Cross-Cultural Longitudinal Study

Based on longitudinal data, this study compared the gross and fine motor development of Cameroonian Nso children and German middle-class children with assessments at 3, 6, 9, and 40 months. A total of 345 infants from Cameroon (n = 73) and Germany (n = 272) were recruited for this study. Complete longitudinal gross and fine motor assessments based on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III were available for subsamples of the originally recruited children. As the results show, the predictability of the 40-months assessments from the previous assessments at 3, 6, and 9 months was low. The early gross motor differences between the Cameroonian and the German children decreased across age. Although the differences had disappeared at 40 months at the Bayley scale level, differences at the item level were still substantial. In contrast to gross motor development, the cultural differences regarding fine motor development increased from 3 to 40 months. This increase was not only shown at the scale level but also reflected at the item level. The developmental pattern is discussed with regard to possible consequences for using developmental tests in different cultural contexts.

Differential Development of Motor Abilities in Western Middle-Class and Cameroonian Nso Infants

The present longitudinal study repeatedly tested motor development in 345 infants at ages 3, 6, and 9 months in two eco-cultural contexts (German middle-class and Cameroonian Nso). To analyze differential motor developments and its co-determinants (parental education and growth in weight), person-centered analyses (hierarchical cluster analyses) were applied. Results indicate that cluster analyses of fine motor development scores led to two culture-mixed cluster groups. Four cluster groups were extracted in the gross motor domain showing differential growth curves. Differential growth curves were partly explained by education of mother and weight trajectories. Besides considering methodological aspects, inter-individual differences of intra-individual change within and across eco-cultural contexts are discussed.

The influence of stimulus material on attention and performance in the visual expectation paradigm A longitudinal study with 3- and 6-month-old infants

This longitudinal study examined the influence of stimulus material on attention and expectation learning in the visual expectation paradigm. Female faces were used as attention-attracting stimuli, and non-meaningful visual stimuli of comparable complexity (Greebles) were used as low attention-attracting stimuli. Expectation learning performance was operationalized using the average reaction time and number of anticipations. For the measurement of attention, the percentage of trials with on-task attention behavior was calculated. To analyze attention and differences in performance, a total of 108 German infants (3–6 months of age) were assessed. Significant differences were found between the two types of stimuli concerning the infants’ rate of attention and anticipations. The results indicate learning material to influence attentional processes and expectation learning.

Recognition of faces and Greebles in 3-month-old infants: Influence of temperament and cognitive abilities

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether temperament and cognitive abilities are related to recognition performance of Caucasian and African faces and of a nonfacial stimulus class, Greebles. Seventy Caucasian infants were tested at 3 months with a habituation/dishabituation paradigm and their temperament and cognitive abilities were measured. Analyses revealed that only infants with easy temperament recognized familiar Greebles from the habituation phase. A similar pattern was found for cognitive abilities showing that only infants with higher cognitive abilities recognized Greebles. Irrespectively of temperament and cognitive abilities, all infants recognized the faces. Thus, the data suggest that recognition of unfamiliar Greebles, but not of faces, is demanding for 3-month-old infants with difficult temperament or lower cognitive abilities.