D. Wayne Mitchell

Infant visual habituation.

The use of visual habituation in the study of infant cognition and learning is reviewed. This article traces the history of the technique, underlying theory, and procedural variation in its measurement. In addition, we review empirical findings with respect to the cognitive processes that presumably contribute to habituation, studies of developmental course and long-term prediction, as well as recent attempts to address or explain the phenomenon of visual habituation through the use of mathematical or quantitative models. The review ends with an appeal for a return to the study of habituation per se as a valid measure of infant learning, rather than relegating the phenomenon to its use as a technique for familiarizing infants in procedures testing for discrimination or recognition.

Individual differences in infant information processing:: The role of temperamental and maternal factors

Abstract Although not explicitly evaluated, assumptions have been made that individual differences in infant attention and information processing are of endogenous origin, and probably genetically based. To date, however, little attention has been focused on examining the antecedents and correlates of these processes, and the role that other infant characteristics and the social environment might play. The present study investigated the relationship between infant temperament, maternal behavior, and two commonly employed measures of infant attention (fixation duration and novelty preference) in 44 4-month old infants. Results suggested that both infant temperament and maternal factors were related to infant attentional performance. Most notably, the relative “fit” between maternal and infant characteristics appeared crucial, with highly responsive infants showing better attentional performance if parented by mothers who were less actively involved during toy play interactions.

Discrimination learning during the first year: Stimulus and positional cues.

In four studies, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old human infants were tested in a discrimination learning task in which visual fixation to a particular stimulus or lateral position was reinforced with an auditory stimulus. In Experiment 1, all age groups exhibited acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of fixation to the reinforced target or position. Experiment 2 revealed that 3-month-olds retained the positional discrimination but not the stimulus discrimination after a 5-min delay between acquisition and extinction; older infants retained both types of discriminations. In Experiments 3 and 4 we investigated a possible developmental shift in the dominance of positional versus stimulus cues by training infants on displays in which stimulus and position were confounded and then by dissociating the cues on test trials. Results from both experiments indicated positional cue dominance for young infants and stimulus cue dominance for older infants. The findings are discussed in terms of differences in the attentional demands elicited by proprioceptive versus exteroceptive cues.

Scoring the NBAS: To recode or not to recode☆

Abstract Lester (1984) proposed a set of six clusters for the standard 27 items of the National Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Nine of these items were recorded to change the scale values for the categories. This analysis examined the impact of recording on the psychometric properties of the NBAS. First, correlations were compared between recorded and nonrecorded items within the clusters. Second, iteritem consistencies were computed within each cluster to determine the extent to which the variables measured a common behavioral dimension. Third, a principal components analysis was done to determine the extent to which recoding makes the clusters more distinguishable. The results indicated that the original scale resulted in greater within-cluster correlations and higher interitem consistencies. The recoding method did not result in more distinguisable behavioral clusters. Overall, the original scale provided more optimal psychometric properties.