Helen L. Bee

Prediction of IQ and language skill from perinatal status, child performance, family characteristics, and mother–infant interaction.

193 basically healthy working-class and middle-class mothers and their infants participated in a 4-year longitudinal study which focused on the relative potency of several clusters of variables for predictions of intellectual and language outcome during the preschool years. The major results were: (1) Measures of perinatal or infant physical status were extremely weak predictors of 4-year IQ or language. (2) Assessments of child performance were poor predictors prior to 24 months, but excellent predictors from 24 months on. (3) Assessments of mother-infant interaction and general environmental quality were among the best predictors at each age tested, and were as good as measures of child performance at 24 and 36 months in predicting IQ and language. (4) Measures of the family ecology (level of stress, social support, maternal education) and parent perception of the child, especially when assessed at birth, were strongly related to child IQ and language within a low-education subsample, but not among mothers with more than high school education. Patterns of prediction were similar for 48-month IQ and 36-month receptive language; predictions were notably weaker for 36-month expressive language.

Predicting intellectual outcomes: Sex differences in response to early environmental stimulation

Sex differences in parent-child interaction and infant development patterns were examined in a longitudinal sample of 193 parent-infant pairs. Few differences were found. However, there were differences in the patterns of prediction of later intellectual and linguistic outcomes for boys and girls. Stronger predictions of IQ or language skill were obtained for boys from measures of the mothers developmental expectations, the extent of the fathers involvement in the infants early care, the provision of appropriate play materials, and the extent of parental life change. Stronger predictions were found for girls for a measure of restriction and punishment. The combination of these two groups of findings — lack of difference on measures of environment and parent-child interaction, and the presence of differences in prediction — suggest that the same experiences produce difference effects for boys and girls.

Experimental modification of the lag between perceiving and performing

Two types of discrimination training were used in an attempt to improve the drawing of geometric figures by preschool children. One type of training produced a significant improvement in drawings, while the other produced a significant decrement. The results suggest that some, but not all, of the “lag” between perceiving and performing may be due to insufficient discrimination.

Prediction of School and Behavior Problems in Children Followed from Birth to Age Eight

For a number of years in the late 1960s and early 1970s there was astonishing agreement among those interested in child welfare that the best way to serve children’s interests was through the early detection of learning and behavior problems. This belief was due in part to the outcomes of two major longitudinal studies—the Kauai study (Werner, Bierman, & French, 1971; Werner & Smith, 1977) and the National Collaborative Perinatal Study (Broman, Nichols, & Kennedy, 1975). Both of these had demonstrated that perinatal status variables had significant, although modest, relationships with later cognitive and motor development (Smith, Flick, Ferris, & Sellman, 1972; Werner et al., 1971). Moreover, it appeared that the effects of these perinatal status variables were mediated by the quality of the environment in which the child was raised.

The effects of competence and social class on degree of modeling of self-reward patterns

Competence of model, competence of subject, and social class were varied in an experiment on the acquisition of standards of excellence. The major finding was a social class effect; lower class Ss, in comparison to middle class Ss, showed little adoption of a model’s standard of excellence. It was suggested that lower class Ss do not adopt high standards set by a model.

EFFECTIVENESS OF DIRECT REWARD AND MODELING IN ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE

Two procedures, modeling and direct reward, were presented as possible methods for studying one aspect of achievement behavior, namely, the tendency to set standards of excellence. A comparison of these two procedures was made to determine their relative efficacy for inducing the hypothesized standards of excellence. 84 boys (ages 7 to 11 yr.) were tested under 1 of the 6 conditions of a 2 × 3 factorial design. The two main variables were (a) the method used to establish a standard of excellence (modeling or direct reward) and (b) the level of standard that was established (low, high, or none). An analysis of the results in terms of a standard setting score (based on the pattern of self-reward) showed that both the direct-reward groups and the modeling groups exhibited standard setting. The direct-reward group, if anything, showed more standard setting than the modeling group did, due mainly to the low level of standard setting in the high-standard modeling group. These results were interpreted as providing support for a social-learning explanation of the acquisition of standards of excellence in the development of achievement motivation.

COGNITIVE STYLE AND PERFORMANCE UNDER DISTRACTION: A PARTIAL REPLICATION

This study is a partial test of a hypothesis advanced by Broverman (1960a, 1960b) that performance under distraction is a function of the degree of match between the requirements of the task and the cognitive style of Ss. It is expected that, when there is a match, little decrement in performance under distraction will be observed. 61 adult Ss were administered the Stroop Word Color Interference Test and categorized as either perceptual-motor or conceptual dominant. Each S was also given anagrams and mathematics problems with and without distraction. No differences between the cognitive style groups were obtained on performance without distraction. However, there were differences in decrement scores (distraction minus non-distraction); conceptual Ss were less disrupted by distraction on anagrams than were perceptual-motor Ss (p < .05). No differences were obtained on the mathematics problems. The results were taken as partial support from Brovermans hypothesis.