Thorsten Kolling

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.

Differences between Old and Young Adults' Ability to Recognize Human Faces Underlie Processing of Horizontal Information.

Recent psychophysical research supports the notion that horizontal information of a face is primarily important for facial identity processes. Even though this has been demonstrated to be valid for young adults, the concept of horizontal information as primary informative source has not yet been applied to older adults’ ability to correctly identify faces. In the current paper, the role different filtering methods might play in an identity processing task is examined for young and old adults, both taken from student populations. Contrary to most findings in the field of developmental face perception, only a near-significant age effect is apparent in upright and un-manipulated presentation of stimuli, whereas a bigger difference between age groups can be observed for a condition which removes all but horizontal information of a face. It is concluded that a critical feature of human face perception, the preferential processing of horizontal information, is less efficient past the age of 60 and is involved in recognition processes that undergo age-related decline usually found in the literature.

Memory development throughout the second year: Overall developmental pattern, individual differences, and developmental trajectories

The present three-wave longitudinal study analyzed the development of declarative memory in N=92 infants (12-, 18- and 24-month-olds) using a deferred imitation task. As expected, overall memory performance improved throughout the second year. Previous research is also replicated insofar as stability of inter-individual differences was low to moderate within this age range. In addition, cluster analyses identified two developmental groups showing different growth and different stability patterns. Multivariate analyses revealed specificities in language and self-development in these two developmental groups having different developmental trajectories.

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.

Assessing declarative memory in 12-month-old infants: A test – retest reliability study of the deferred imitation task

This study examined whether declarative memory in infants can be reliably assessed using the deferred imitation task. Twenty-four infants at the age of 12 months were given the same deferred imitation task twice within a short period of time (week-to-week assessment). Replicating the results of former studies the second memory test yielded better memory performances on the group level than the first one, indicating a memory benefit as is typically found in older children as well as in adults. Stability of memory performance level was analysed using two indicators, namely test – retest correlations assessing stability of individual memory performances for the whole sample, as well as corrected test – retest correlations using individual consistency scores. Test – retest reliability was highly significant (r = .52, p = .009), as well as corrected test – retest reliability (r = .62, p = .001), thus demonstrating that the individual memory performance level in infants can reliably be assessed using the deferred imitation task.

Der Frankfurter Imitations-Test für 12 Monate alte Kinder (FIT 12)

Zusammenfassung. Die Erforschung des Gedachtnisses von praverbalen Kindern nimmt in der modernen Entwicklungspsychologie einen breiten Raum ein. Es besteht dabei Konsens dahingehend, dass die Methode der Verzogerten Imitation (VI) das Verfahren ist, das deklaratives Gedachtnis im Verlauf der Ontogenese am fruhesten erfassen kann. Im deutschen Sprachraum gibt es bislang kein erprobtes Instrumentarium, das fur die Messung deklarativer Gedachtnisleistungen mittels VI erprobt worden ware. Im Anschluss an die Darstellung der Grundlagen des Messverfahrens wird uber eine Studie mit n = 92 Einjahrigen berichtet, in der eine Aufgabenserie zur VI erprobt (Frankfurter Imitations-Test fur 12 Monate alte Kinder, FIT 12) wurde. Dieses neu entwickelte Instrument erwies sich als altersadaquat. Die zwischen den Einjahrigen gemessenen Leistungsunterschiede erwiesen sich zudem in einer Test-Retest-Reliabilitatsstudie nach einem Zeitintervall von einer Woche als stabil (Goertz et al., under revision). Schlieslich konnten Bel...

Deferred Imitation in 6-Month-Old German and Cameroonian Nso Infants

Deferred imitation is well accepted as a method to assess declarative memory in preverbal infants. Until now, mostly Western middle-class infants were tested with this paradigm. Therefore, early cultural differences in imitative behavior and/or declarative memory performance are largely unknown. This study investigated deferred imitation performance in two samples from two cultural contexts: 6-month-old Cameroonian Nso farmer infants (N = 38) and German middle-class infants (N = 46). Both samples were tested with one of two types of pillow tasks, similar to the hand puppet task: a pillow with either a White female face or a Cameroonian Nso female face. After a baseline phase, four target actions were demonstrated. Memory performance was assessed after a delay of 10 minutes. Infants’ imitative behavior was observed and compared with baseline behavior. Both the Cameroonian Nso and the German infants showed significantly more target actions in the test than in the baseline phase (memory effect). These results clearly demonstrate that imitation as a learning process in infancy is found in various cultures. Although infants of both samples showed more proximal interactions such as caressing, hugging, and kissing the pillow from their own cultural context than the one from the unfamiliar cultural context, the cultural nature of the material in memory tests did not influence memory-based performance.

Die Frankfurter Imitationstests für 18 und 24 Monate alte Kinder: Entwicklung altersangepasster Gedächtnistests

Zusammenfassung. Das Verfahren der Verzogerten Imitation gilt als eine Methode, durch die deklaratives Gedachtnis bei vorsprachlichen Kindern erfasst werden kann. Dabei werden den Kindern neuartige, objektbezogene Handlungen gezeigt, die sie lediglich beobachten durfen. Nach einem Behaltensintervall werden die Objekte sukzessive prasentiert, das Spiel der Kinder wird analysiert und mit dem Spontanspiel einer Kontrollgruppe verglichen, die zuvor kein Modell gesehen hat. Wahrend wenig umstritten ist, dass dieses Verfahren deklaratives Gedachtnis erfasst, fehlt es an altersangepassten Testinstrumenten. Vorgestellt werden neu entwickelte Testverfahren fur 18 und 24 Monate alte Kinder (Frankfurter Imitationstests FIT 18 bzw. FIT 24) und mit Tests fur jungere und altere Kinder in Beziehung gesetzt (FIT 12 und FIT 36). Fur diese Instrumente lasst sich nachweisen, dass das Spielverhalten nicht spontan erfolgt, sondern die Handlungen beobachtet und behalten wurden. Ferner erweisen sich die Tests als objektiv auswe...The deferred imitation paradigm has widely been accepted as a valid means for assessing declarative memory performance in preverbal children. In a typical task, novel object-related actions are demonstrated by an experimenter while children are only allowed to observe. Following a retention interval, the objects are successively given to the children. Behaviour with the objects is analysed and compared to the spontaneous behaviour of a control group that did not observe the model. So far, there is a lack of age-adapted instruments assessing deferred imitation. We suggest new standardised procedures for 18- and 24-month-olds (Frankfurt Imitation Tests FIT 18 and FIT 24) and relate them to tests for 12- and 36-month-olds (FIT 12 and FIT 36). Evidence of this study suggests that childrens actions reflect memory processes rather than being purely spontaneous behaviour. The Frankfurt Imitation Tests can be analysed objectively, are age-appropriate in their difficulty and allow to assess both the general age-related increase in memory performances as well as inter-individual differences within the two age groups. Further, those dimensions of the developmental test ET6-6 assessing imitative behaviour are related to the FIT-test score.

Der Frankfurter Imitationstest für 36 Monate alte Kinder (FIT 36)

Um nicht sprachliche Gedachtnisleistungen von 36 Monate alten Kindern zu erfassen, wurde ein Verfahren zur Verzogerten Imitation entwickelt. Der Frankfurter Imitationstest (FIT 36) umfasst 40 Handlungsschritte, die sich aus acht Items mit vier bis sechs Einzelschritten zusammensetzen. Im Mittel imitieren Dreijahrige (N = 82) 25 Handlungsschritte. In einer unabhangigen Reliabilitatsstudie (N = 24) konnte seine Test-Retest-Reliabilitat mit r = .55 nachgewiesen werden. Im Vergleich mit den Gedachtnisleistungen im freien Abruf von Bildern, dem „Schatzkastchen“ sowie dem Untertest „Worter erklaren“ aus dem Wiener Entwicklungstest (WET) zeigten sich teilweise Zusammenhange zur Imitationsleistung, die Hinweise auf die Validitat des Tests liefern. Wahrend sich bei der Durchfuhrung der verbalen Gedachtnistests sowie dem „Schatzkastchen“ (WET) teilweise mangelndes Instruktionsverstandnis bzw. Motivationsprobleme zeigten, wurde der FIT 36 durch seine starke Handlungskomponente von den Kindern engagiert ausgefuhrt. D...

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.