INFANT
BEHAVIOR
AND
DEVELOPMENT
16,
42S439
(1993)
Antecedents of Exploratory
Competence at One Year
CATHERINE
S. TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
MARC
New York University and National Institute
and Human Development
H. BORNSTEIN
of Child Health
The start of the 2nd year is a period
of transition
and substantial
variability
among
toddlers
in ploy and attention
abilities.
This longitudinal
study exomined
the ontecedents of voriotion
among
13-month-old
toddlers
in these exploratory
competencies
in
the infonts’
own informotion-processing
obilities
at 5 months
(indexed
by visuol fixotion
in the loboroton/),
the infonts’
vocal and exploratory
activities
at 5 months
(measured
during
naturalistic
observotion
in the home),
mothers’
stimulotion
of infants
ot 5
months,
and mothers’
IQ. Infant
visuol
fixotion
ond maternal
IQ predicted
toddler
symbolic
play;
furthermore,
infant
visuol
fixation,
infant
activity,
and moternal
IQ
predicted
toddler
attention
span. In contrast,
mothers’
early stimulation
did not predict
play or attention
in toddlers.
Structural
equation
modeling
was used to assess prediction of the three
significant
antecedents
(infant
visuol
fixotion,
infant
activity,
ond
maternol
IQ) to toddlers’
exploratory
competence,
o latent
varioble
representing
the
shored
variance
between
ploy and attention.
Together,
the three predictors
accounted
for 50% of the variance
in toddler
exploratory
competence.
These dato broaden
the
scope of infont ond mother
prediction
beyond
toddler verbal-representational
abilities
to encompass
domains
of toddler
exploration.
symbolic
play
exploration
hobituation
At the start of the 2nd year, play and attention go through marked transitions
as children become increasingly capable of representing experiences of self
and others in symbolic play (Fein, 1981; McCall, 1979; O’Connell & Bretherton, 1984; Piaget, 1962) and of regulating and sustaining attention (Bakeman
& Adamson, 1984; Harding & Golinkoff, 1979; Kopp, 1987; Krakow, Kopp,
& Vaughn, 1981; Ruff & Lawson, 1990; Tamis-LeMonda
& Bornstein, 1990).
Children vary considerably in their play and attention competencies at this
C.T.L. was supported
by a New York University Fellowship, Helbein Scholarship,
IRTA
Fellowship
from the National
Institute
of Child Health
and Human
Development,
and by
research grants HD20559
and HD20807.
M.H.B.
was supported
by research grants (HD20559
and HD20807)
and by a Research
Career Development
Award (HDO0521)
from the National
Institute
of Child Health and Human
Development.
We thank L. Cyphers,
C. Feltz, G. Fitzmaurice,
J. Hampson,
R. Kahana-Kalman,
and A. Melstein-Damast.
Correspondence
and requests for reprints should be sent to Catherine
S. Tamis-LeMonda,
New York University, Department of Applied Psychology,
239 Greene
Street, 5th Floor, New
York, NY 10003, or Marc H. Bornstein, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
Building
31, Room B2B15, 9000 Rockville
Pike, Bethesda,
MD 20892.
423
424
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
BORNSTEIN
time (Belsky, Goode, & Most, 1980; Belsky & Most, 1981; Lewis & Baldini,
1979; McCall, 1979; Parrinello & Ruff, 1988; Power, Chapieski, & McGrath,
1985; Ruff, Capozzoli, Dubiner, & Parrinello,
1990; Tamis-LeMonda
&
Bomstein, 1989, 1990, 1991). Moreover, children who demonstrate more
sophistication in play also demonstrate longer bouts of sustained attention,
suggesting that play and attention might reflect the same underlying component (Fenson, Sapper, & Miner, 1974; Jennings, Harmon, Morgan, Gaiter, &
Yarrow, 1979; Power et al., 1985; Tamis-LeMonda
& Bomstein, 1990,1993).
In prior research, we isolated a factor in 13-month-olds’ play and attention
called exploratory competence, a latent construct consisting of the unique
variance shared by children’s play and attention (Tamis-LeMonda
& Bornstein, 1990). In this follow-up study, we explored antecedents of toddlers’
exploratory competence. Specifically, we examined the contributions of infant information processing and home activity earlier in infancy, and maternal
stimulation and IQ to these toddler competencies. Do these factors (alone or
together) predict toddlers’ play sophistication, attention span, and exploratory competence? We assessed infant visual fixation because laboratory measures of infant attention have been shown to be valid predictors of childhood
verbal ability and performance on standardized intelligence tests (see Borastein & Sigman, 1986, for review). We also studied infants’ home activities
based on findings that infant visual and tactual exploration and positive
vocalization predict later verbal and intellectual performance (e.g., Bornstein, 1985; Cameron, Livson, & Bayley, 1967; DiLalla et al., 1990; Olson,
Bayles, & Bates, 1986; Roe, McClure, & Roe, 1983). For mothers, we
assessed encouragement of infant attention towards aspects of the environment; maternal didactics have been shown to possess substantive predictive
validity for concurrent and future cognitive and social achievements of children (see Belsky et al., 1980; Olson, Bates, & Bayles, 1984). Finally, we
collected data on mothers’ IQ because parental intelligence is associated with
cognitive skills in infancy and early childhood; moreover, these associations
maintain even after controlling for parental stimulation and other aspects of
the home environment (DeFries, Plomin, Vandenberg, & Kuse, 1981; HardyBrown & Plomin, 1985; Longstreth et al., 1981; Plomin, 1987; Thompson,
1990; Thompson & Plomin, 1988).
To date, studies that have assessed relations between infant visual fixation,
infant activity, maternal stimulation, and/or maternal IQ and childhood outcome have typically focused on children’s verbal aptitudes or standardized IQ
performance rather than their exploratory competencies. Moreover, the majority of studies typically assess the predictive validity of single measures in
infant or in mother to child functioning rather than considering factors in both
partners as contributors to later competencies. This study takes a first step
toward investigating multiple antecedents of toddlers’ exploratory skills.
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
COMPETENCE
425
METHOD
Sample
Thirty-nine mothers and infants (19 males, 20 females), recruited from private pediatric and obstetric groups in New York City, participated in this
longitudinal study. All infants were term at birth (M weight = 3.35 kg, SD =
0.51; M length = 50.8 cm, SD = 2.93) and healthy throughout the course of
the study. Infants came from middle socioeconomic (SES) status households
(M = 60, SD = 4.96, on the Hollingshead Four Factor Index [Department of
Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, CT]; Gottfried, 1985).
Dyads were seen twice at 5 months of age (M = 161 days, SD = 9.72, at
the time of the laboratory assessment; M = 162 days, SD = 8.90, at the time
of the home observation); half of the sample was first seen in the laboratory
and half, first visited at home. Dyads were visited again at home at 13 months
(M = 401 days, SD = 4.36). At the time of the 5-month observation,
mothers completed a brief questionnaire that supplied demographic data and
information about their infants’ health status from birth, their educational
histories, and so forth. Administration
of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale-Revised (WARS-R; Wechsler, 1981) was completed on a third separate
home visit.
Ten additional subjects who had been seen at 5 months were excluded
from the final sample: 3 infants did not habituate; 1 was an extreme on both
univariate and bivariate plots involving visual fixation (Tukey, 1977); and 6
moved out of state before completion of the study.
S-Month
Laboratory
Observation
Seffing. To obtain data on visual fixation, the infant was placed in a
standard infant seat approximately 60 cm from a matte white stimulus screen
measuring approximately 45 x 90 cm. A dim signal lamp, 7 mm in diameter,
was centrally embedded in the panel 3.5 cm above the infant’s eye level. The
rest of the infant area was enclosed by white curtaining. A projector (located
in an adjacent control room) cast images of stimulus slides onto the screen
through a window located behind the infant. The infant’s upper torso and the
projector light were televised with a camera whose lens was located in a 1.3cm hole in the stimulus panel at the infant’s eye level. The video signal was
displayed on two monitors, one for experimenters and one for mothers; this
signal was also video recorded for subsequent scoring and analysis.
Procedures. Sessions began when the infant was in an alert state. Before
each stimulus presentation, the infant’s attention was drawn to the center of
the stimulus panel by the signal lamp. Once the infant was oriented, a 10-s
pretest stimulus (a three-ring bull’s-eye) was projected. Next, an affectively
426
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
BORNSTEIN
neutral female face (Bornstein & Benasich, 1986) was presented using an
infant-control habituation paradigm. Immediately
following habituation, infants were tested over four 10-s trials in which the familiar stimulus and a
novel stimulus (a red and black 4.5cycle/degree square-wave grating) were
each presented twice, sequentially, and in a randomized counterbalanced
order. Following the test phase, infants saw a 10-s posttest with the same
stimulus used in the pretest.
On-line judgments of infant looking were made by an experimenter who
observed the infant on one monitor and initiated and terminated stimulus
presentation. A second experimenter judged infant looking on-line independently, preserving these judgments by pressing buttons on a remote unit that
fed directly into the timer and memory of the microprocessor. The infant
began to accumulate looking time when judged to look at the stimulus for a
minimum of .30 s. To terminate a trial, the infant had to look away from the
stimulus for 1.5 s. A single “look” with these parameters defined a trial. The
mean duration of the infant’s first two looks constituted a baseline, and
stimulus presentations continued until the infant reached a habituation criterion of two consecutive looks each less than 50% of that baseline.
Scoring. The duration of the infant’s peak look (in seconds) during the
habituation session served as the principal measure of visual fixation; peak
look is reliable and stable, and covaries with measures of habituation, such as
decrement and slope (Colombo, Mitchell, O’Brien, & Horowitz, 1987). Duration measures such as peak look, are also consistently valid predictors of
later intellectual functioning (e.g., Bornstein, 1989; Sigman, Cohen, Beckwith, & Parmelee, 1986; Slater, Cooper, Rose, & Perry, 1985; TamisLeMonda & Bornstein, 1989). Scoring reliability for fixation data was established with a second independent coder; Pearson reliabilities (r) on looking
times for nearly half the sample averaged .95.
S-Month Home Observation
Home visits allowed mothers and infants to be observed in surroundings
familiar to them. Visits were scheduled during times when infants were rested
and alert. Mothers were asked to follow their usual routine and to disregard
the observer’s presence insofar as possible. The observation period lasted a
minimum of 55 min; the first 10 min constituted a warm-up and were not used
in data analysis. The succeeding 45 min of observation were scored on-line
using 60-s intervals in which 30 s of observation were followed by 30 s of
recording.
Infanf Activity.
At the initiation of each 30-s observation interval the
observer noted the infant’s state (adapted from Brazelton, 1973). Infants
were judged to be in states of quiet or active alert in 94% of intervals across
the visits. During coding intervals, observers noted whether or not the infant
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
COMPETENCE
427
engaged in each of four target activities: vocalizing nondistress, looking at
mother, looking at an object, or touching an object. One comprehensive
index of infant activity was derived by tallying the number of intervals in
which infants exhibited one or more of these four activities. Coding reliability
was established with a second coder, who independently coded approximately
15% of the visits. Kappa agreement for infant state based on matched coding
intervals averaged .75; kappa agreement for infant activity averaged .64.
Mother Object Stimulation.
During coding intervals, observers recorded
whether mothers encouraged infant attention towards an aspect of the environment. Mothers could do this by demonstrating how something worked,
pointing, naming an object, describing the unique qualities of an object, or
positioning the infant with the explicit purpose of facilitating the infant’s
visual and/or tactual exploration of an object. A comprehensive index of
maternal stimulation
was obtained by tallying the number of intervals in
which mothers encouraged infants’ attention. This measure has been shown
to be a reliable and valid predictor of infant and toddler abilities across
samples and cultures (e.g., Bornstein, Azuma, Tamis-LeMonda,
& Ogino,
1990; Bornstein, Miyake, & Tamis-LeMonda,
1985-1986; Bornstein, Toda,
Azuma, Tamis-LeMonda,
& Ogino, 1990; Sigman et al., 1988; Vibbert &
Bornstein, 1989). Kappa agreement for maternal stimulation, calculated on
15% of the sample, across matched intervals, averaged .62.
13-Month
Home
Observation
Data on toddler play competence and attention and on mother play stimulation at 13 months were collected during a home visit at a time when the
mother felt her toddler would be alert and rested. The home visit consisted of
a videotaped session of toddler and mother engaging in 15 min of free play.
Mothers were told that the experimenter was interested in general aspects of
children’s development and that she was to remain with her toddler, behave
in her usual manner, and disregard the experimenter’s presence. A set of toys
(doll, blanket, teapot with cover, two teacups, two saucers, two spoons, a toy
telephone, toy vehicle, two small picture books, foam rubber ball, and a set of
nesting barrels) was placed on the floor in front of toddler and mother. All
videotaped sessions had time simultaneously recorded to the nearest 0.1 s for
subsequent scorings.
Children’s play competence and attention and mothers’ play stimulation
were coded from the videotaped play session. Play, attention, and maternal
stimulation were each coded by a different person, so that coders were blind
to the nature of the other data sets.
Toddler Play Competence. During 60 consecutive 15-s intervals, the coder
noted which of four levels of symbolic play the child achieved (Belsky &
428
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
BORNSTEIN
Most, 1981; Fein, 1981; Fein & Apfel, 1979; McCune-Nicolich,
1981). Briefly, the four levels were defined as (1) self-directed pretense (e.g., drinking
from a teacup), (2) other-directed pretense (e.g., putting doll to sleep), (3)
sequential pretense (e.g., stirring in cup and drinking), and (4) substitution
pretense (e.g., pretending block is a spoon). On the basis of children’s
performance, one comprehensive measure of toddler’s total symbolic play
was calculated by summing the frequencies obtained for each of the four
levels of play. Intercoder reliabilities for toddler play were obtained by having
independent coders score toddler play on 20% of the sample; kappa agreement for the four levels of play averaged .82.
Toddler Attention Span. Each child’s visual orienting during the play
session was divided into attention episodes. An attention episode was defined
as visual orientation to a target play object or related set of objects (e.g., doll
and blanket) lasting a minimum of 2 s. The episode terminated when the
infant turned away from the target for more than 2 s. The onset and offset of
each episode was rounded to the nearest second based on the prerecorded
time signal appearing on the videotapes. For each child, the mean length of
the two longest episodes of uninterrupted attention was calculated. This index
of attention was selected because it is conceptually analogous to the infant
measure of peak look during habituation and has been found to be a valid and
reliable index of attention during the 2nd year (Power et al., 1985; TamisLeMonda & Bornstein, 1990). Interobserver reliabilities for attention span
were obtained by having three independent coders score the attention of 20%
of the toddlers; Pearson reliabilities calculated for time data averaged .87.
Mother Play Stimulation.
Mothers’ play stimulation was coded during the
same 15-s contiguous time blocks as children’s play. During each interval the
experimenter noted whether mother actively attempted to engage her toddler
in play, for example, by demonstrating a play action or by soliciting play from
her toddler. We focused on mothers’ play stimulation because this measure
demonstrates substantial variability, is reliable, possesses validity for children’s play during the 2nd year in diverse populations,
and is. a stable
dimension of parenting across the 2nd year (Tamis-LeMonda
& Bomstein,
1989, 1990, 1991, 1993; Tamis-LeMonda,
Bomstein,
Cyphers, Toda, &
Ogino, 1992). One composite measure of maternal play stimulation
was
generated by tallying the number of coding intervals in which mothers exhibited stimulation.
Interobserver reliabilities
for maternal stimulation
were
obtained by having three independent observers code 23% of the sample;
kappa agreement for maternal play stimulation averaged .86.
Maternal
IQ
Mothers’ IQ scores were assessed during a third home visit. Two experimenters attended the visit: One administered four subscales of the WAIS-R
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
COMPETENCE
429
(Wechsler, 1981) to mothers, while the second occupied the child in a room
separate from the testing setting. Two subscales were administered from the
verbal portion (Information
and Vocabulary) and two from the performance
portion (Picture Completion and Block Design). These subscales were chosen
because they demonstrate the strongest associations to total verbal score,
total performance score, and full scale IQ in the representative population
(r = .77-.90). Testing time averaged 45 min.
Six of the 39 mothers were not administered the WA&R:
1 mother
refused; 2 were familiar with the test; and 3 could not be visited a third time.
To maintain the integrity of the longitudinal design, we included these subjects in analyses by assigning them the mean WA&R
score for the group
(see Cohen & Cohen, 1983). Two precautions were taken with respect to this
decision. First, we compared these subjects to the remaining 33 on all the
variables measured; they did not differ statistically in any way. Second, we
conducted all analyses with the 33 subjects first and compared results with the
complete sample; results were essentially identical.
RESULTS
Descriptive statistics and concurrent correlations for the 5 and 13-month
variables are reported first. We next assess prediction from infants’ visual
fixation and activity to toddlers’ 13-month play, attention, and exploratory
competence (a latent variable formed from the variance shared by toddler
play and attention), and from mothers’ stimulation and IQ to these same
outcome measures. Finally, we report the unique contributions of the identified mother and toddler predictors to the three toddler measures (i.e., over
and above the other predictors) as well as their joint predictive validity for
toddler outcome.
Descriptive
Statistics
and Concurrent
Correlations
5 Monfhs. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and intercorrelations
for
infant peak look, infant home activity, and maternal object stimulation at 5
months. Infant visual fixation and home activity were independent. Maternal
object stimulation related to infant activity, but not to infant visual fixation.
During the habituation session, as a whole, infants habituated. They attended equally on the pretest (A4 = 6.3 s, SD = 2.46) and posttest trials (M
= 5.8 s, SD = 2.49), t(38) = 0.79, n.s.; their novelty preference was significantly greater than chance (M = 55%, SD = 9.30), t(38) = 3.28, p <
.OOl; and finally, they looked more at the novel stimulus during the test phase
relative to the last two habituation trials (M = 60%, SD = 13.59), t(38) =
4.59, p < .OOl. These findings eliminate fatigue and other causes as interpretations of habituation.
430
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
TABLE
Descriptive
Statistics
and
Infant peak
look
Infant home
activity
Moternol
abiect
stimulation
*p
Concurrent
BORNSTEIN
1
Correlations
M
SD
23.5
35.3
12.4
16.1
6.9
7.9
Among
5Month
Range
4.5-68.4
15.0-45.0
2.0-32.0
Measures
1
-
2
-.16
-
3
- .06
.43*
-
< .Ol
23 Monrhs. Table 2
toddler symbolic play,
months. Toddlers’ play
related to toddler play,
shows descriptive statistics and intercorrelations
for
attention span, and mothers’ play stimulation at 13
related to their attention. Maternal play stimulation
but not to toddler attention.
Maternal 1Q. As a group, mothers in the sample demonstrated above
average performance on both verbal and performance subscales of the
WAIS-R. Their overall verbal IQ was 125, and their overall performance IQ
was 110; full scale IQ was 121 on average. Their scores were normally
distributed. As expected, the two verbal scores were related, r = .66,
p < .OOl, and the two performance scores were related, r = .46, p < .Ol,
Performance on the verbal scale was related to that on the performance scale,
r = .40, p < .05. Mothers’ IQ was related to their stimulation of children at
both ages, TS = .44 and .43, p < .05, but not to infant fixation or infant
activity in the home.
Predictive
Models
From 5 Months
to 13 Months
The next sets of analyses examined the contributions of infant (i.e., visual
fixation and activity) and mother (i.e., early stimulation and IQ) to the three
outcomes in toddlers: play, attention, and exploratory competence. In all of
these analyses, we covaried mothers’ concurrent stimulation from toddler
criterion measures because data on toddlers were collected in the home in the
context of interaction with mothers.
Structural equation modeling was used in analyses that examined the
antecedents of toddlers’ exploratory competence. This statistical technique
Descriptive
Toddler
Toddler
Maternal
Statistics
symbolic
play
ottentian
span
play stimulation
p < .05.
and
Concurrent
TABLE 2
Correlations
Among
M
SD
Range
5.7
90.7
36.7
5.3
41.8
13.0
0.0-19.0
25.0-205.0
8.0-68.0
13-Month
1
-
Measures
2
3
.3B*
-
.30*
.lO
-
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
COMPETENCE
431
was chosen because it generates solutions for models in which a hypothetical
construct is assumed to be “latent” to observed measures and is best represented by a factor score made up of multiple indicators (Biddle & Marlin,
1987). Latent variables are presumed to be more reliable and free of error
than the indicator variables from which they are formed (Martin, 1987).
Because of the relatively small sample size, several precautions were taken
when using structural equation modeling. First, the models tested included
only one dependent latent factor (comprised of two indicators) and two to
three predictors, thus minimizing the number of estimated parameters. Second, model testing was confirmatory rather than exploratory. That is, our
approach was a priori because we have shown that independent measures of
mother and infant are valid predictors of diverse cognitive competencies in
several samples in different cultures (e.g., Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda,
1989, 1990; Tamis-LeMonda
& Bornstein, 1989). Finally, in discussing these
data, we remain descriptive, focusing on effect magnitudes, rather than
taking an inferential
approach, because the generalizability
of findings
from small samples is limited and goodness-of-fit estimates may be inflated
(Geweke & Singleton, 1980; Tanaka, 1987; Tanaka, Panter, Winborne, &
Huba, 1990).
Infant Contributions to I3-Month Play, Attention, and Exploratory Competence. At the zero-order level, infant visual fixation related inversely to
toddler play and attention, but only the correlation for attention achieved
significance, rs = - .20 and - .29, p < .05. Infant home activity did not relate
to toddler play or attention, r = .06 and .18.
We next explored the contributions of visual fixation and home activity to
the latent factor of toddler exploratory competence. In this model, we residualized the two infant predictors by mothers’ early stimulation and IQ prior to
entering them in the model so that unique infant contributions to toddler
exploration might be tested. Both infant visual fixation and activity predicted
toddlers’ exploratory competence in the expected directions, rs = - .46 and
.40, ps < .Ol, respectively. The goodness-of-fit indices were adequate, x2(1)
= 1.33, p = .25 (Bentler-Bonnet
GFI = .91).
Maternal Contributions
to 13-Month Play, Attention, and Exploratory
Competence. This set of analyses explored predictive associations between
mothers’ stimulation and IQ and toddlers’ play, attention, and exploratory
competence. Mothers’ stimulation did not relate to toddler play or attention,
t-S= - .02 and - .06, respectively. Mothers’ IQ was related positively to
toddler play and attention, but only the relation to attention achieved significance, TS = .26 and .41, p < .Ol, respectively. Structural equation modeling
tested the contributions of the two mother variables to the latent variable of
exploratory competence. We partialed 5-month infant activity from maternal
432
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
BORNSTEIN
stimulation prior to entering maternal stimulation in the equation because
Smonth stimulation was examined in an interactive setting with infants and
covaried with infant activity. This permitted assessment of mothers’ unique
early contribution to toddlers’ exploration above infants’ interactive contribution. Results indicated that maternal IQ, but not stimulation,
predicted
variance in toddler exploratory competence, rs = .34, p < .05, and - .17,
respectively. Model fit indices were good, x*(l) = .03, p = .87 (BentlerBonnet GFI = .99).
Unique and Joint Contributions
of Infant and Mother to Toddler I3Month Exploratory Competence. The final analyses tested the unique contributions of the three significant predictors (i.e., infant visual fixation, infant
home activity, and mother IQ) to toddler play, attention, and exploratory
competence. Because mothers’ early stimulation did not predict any of the
toddler outcome measures, we eliminated mother stimulation as predictor in
these analyses. Before doing so, however, we examined interactions between
mothers’ early stimulation and the other three predictors (i.e., infant visual
fixation, infant home activity, and maternal IQ) to play and attention separately. None was significant. As noted before, however, maternal stimulation did relate to two of the infant predictors, infant activity and maternal IQ;
to determine the unique contributions of each, therefore, we covaried mothers’ stimulation from these predictors in subsequent analyses.
Table 3 presents unique (i.e., partial) predictive correlations between each
of the three antecedents and toddler play and attention performance, that is,
the prediction of each infant or mother predictor over and above contributions of the other two predictors. As indicated, shorter peak looks were
associated with more symbolic play and longer attention episodes, although
only the correlation for symbolic play reached conventional significance.
Predictive
Activity
TABLE 3
Partial
Correlations
From 5Month
and Visual
Fixation
and Maternal
to Toddler
Play
and
Infant
IQ
Attention0
13 Months”
5 Months
Infant
Infant
Maternal
Play
peak
home
look
activity
- .32*
.09
.25+
IQ’
‘p c .lO.
“Predictive
antecedents.
bResidualized
‘Residualized
Attention
fp < .05.
correlations
l *p
by 13-month
by 5-month
< .Ol.
over and
maternal
moternal
above
play
object
- .26+
.34*
.47-
the
other
stimulation.
stimulation.
two
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
433
COMPETENCE
Infant home activity predicted toddler attention, but not play. Maternal IQ
was related positively to toddler play and attention, but only the prediction to
attention achieved a conventional level of significance. Interactions among
the three predictors did not explain further variance in toddler outcome
measures above these main effect.
Finally, Figure 1 presents the results for the structural equation mode1
testing the unique contributions of the three antecedents to the latent factor
of exploratory competence. Represented in this mode1 are the partial correlations for each of the three predictors to exploratory competence, that is, their
unique relations to the latent variable over and above the other two contributors. As indicated, each of the antecedents explains unique variance in
toddler exploratory competence (partial rs = .45-.63, ps < .Ol); together,
they accounted for 50% of the variance in toddler outcome. As indicated,
both the chi-square and Bentler-Bonnet
fit indices for the model were good.
DISCUSSION
This study examined the predictive validity of infant visual fixation and home
activity at 5 months, and maternal stimulation and IQ separately and together
for toddler symbolic play, attention, and exploratory competence at 13
months. Infant visual fixation, infant activity, and maternal IQ differentially
PEAK
x’(2)
=
LOOK
ATTENTlONb
1.57, p = 46,
GFI
= .94
R’ = SO.
“residualized
bresidualized
‘p < .Ol.
by mothers’
by mothers’
S-month
13.month
obiect
play
stimulation
stimulation.
-p < .ool
Figure
1. Unique
predictions
exploratory
competence.
from
Predictive
infant peak look, infant
paths
present
partial
home octivih/,
correlations.
and
moternal
IQ to toddler
434
TAMIS-LEMONDA
AND
BORNSTEIN
predicted unique variance in toddlers’ play, attention, and exploratory competencies.
The data demonstrate relations between peak look and toddler play,
attention, and exploratory competence. Prior research in our laboratory had
identified similar patterns of prediction from visual fixation to toddler representational competence (Bornstein, 1985, 1989; Tamis-LeMonda
& Bornstein, 1989), a factor formed from language comprehension and symbolic
play, yet unrelated to toddler exploratory competence (Tamis-LeMonda
&
Bornstein, 1990). Taken together, these studies indicate that visual fixation in
infancy predicts diverse and independent outcomes in the child; this suggests
that visual fixation might be partitioned into different component processes
(see also Bornstein & Sigman, 1986; Colombo & Mitchell, 1988; Ltcuyer,
1987a, 1987b, 1988; Sigman, 1988).
Researchers have conceptualized visual fixation data as reflecting multiple
constructs such as representation,
motivation,
arousal, temperament,
and
state, among others (Bornstein & Sigman, 1986; Colombo & Mitchell, 1988;
Lecuyer, 1987a, 1987b, 1988; Rose, 1992; Sigman, 1988). One central process
thought to explain individual variation in visual fixation is the infant’s ability
to coordinate and focus attention. It has been suggested that the infant who is
better able to regulate attention so as to monitor effectively incoming en+
ronmental information might be the infant who habituates quickly and/or
demonstrates shorter looking time during visual fixations (Sigman, 1988).
Similarly, Ltcuyer (1987a, 1987b, 1988) has speculated that fast habituators
might have greater control over processing, shorter periods of blank staring,
and greater attention than slow habituators. As suggested by Ruff and Saltarelli (1993) and by Tamis-LeMonda
and Bornstein (1993), attention during
visual fixation paradigms differs functionally from attention during exploration with objects, thus, the nature of diverse contexts and measures needs to
be considered when interpreting patterns of looking in infants. Shorter visual
fixation in laboratory procedures might index more efficient or faster processing in young infants; in contrast, in situations that permit older infants to
explore actively (as during free play), sustained interest, particularly when
coupled with more sophisticated play activity, appears to index greater competence. Our data empirically support these theoretical speculations by demonstrating an inverse relation between visual fixation in infancy and exploratory competence in toddlerhood.
This study also indicates that S-month-old infants who exhibit more positive activity in the home, as measured by exploratory acts and nondistress
vocalizing, sustain attention for longer periods and display more competent
exploration at 13 months. Other studies assessing ongoing infant activity have
likewise demonstrated prediction from infant vocalizing and/or environmental attention to verbal performance and IQ in early childhood (e.g., Bornstein, 1985; Bornstein et al., 19851986; Cameron et al., 1967; Roe et al.,
ANTECEDENTS
OF EXPLORATORY
COMPETENCE
435
1983). These data support a model of infant-to-childhood
stability and, at the
same time, broaden the scope of infant prediction to encompass domains of
competence other than those subserved by verbal-representational
abilities
(see also Heinicke, Diskin, Ramsey-Klee, & Oates, 1986).
Finally, associations obtained here between maternal IQ and toddler attention and exploratory competence provide tentative evidence that variation
among children in certain aspects of exploration might partly reflect a genetic
basis (Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda,
1990; Heinicke et al., 1986; Parrinello &
Ruff, 1988; Porges, 1983). Significantly, maternal WA&R
predicted toddler
outcome after covarying mothers’ early and later stimulation. This suggests
that the mechanism of prediction from maternal IQ to toddler outcome is
direct rather than being mediated or explained by its association with maternal stimulation (DeFries et al., 1981; Hardy-Brown & Plomin, 1985; Plomin,
1987; Thompson & Plomin, 1988).
In contrast to these significant predictors, maternal stimulation did not
predict any of the toddler outcome measures. Other studies show that early
maternal stimulation can predict toddler competencies. The lack of prediction
from mothers’ stimulation to toddler outcomes might be specific to the child
measures we examined. It may be, for example, that mothers’ stimulation
better predicts aspects of language growth or representational competencies
during the toddler period (e.g., Furrow, Nelson, & Benedict, 1979; Nelson,
1973; Newport, Gleitman,
& Gleitman,
1977; Olson et al., 1986; TamisLeMonda & Bornstein, 1989, 1990) than it does exploratory competencies.
Here, we assessed toddlers’ ability to susluin attention; as suggested by
Parrinello and Ruff (1988), unless infant attention is actually interrupted, the
end of the episode, and thus duration of attention, is under infant control. It
may also be that other aspects of maternal interaction are better predictors of
toddlers’ exploratory competencies than those assessed here.
These infant-toddler
and mother-toddler
correlations point to underlying
cognitive-attentional
processes in infants that are stable into the 2nd year as
well as in part determined by maternal IQ. Nonetheless, it would be misleading simply to attribute stability and prediction to genetic or otherwise endogenous processes. By 5 months, infants have had a potentially telling, albeit
short, history of interactions that might already explain variation in those
aspects of visual fixation and activity that we have assessed (Bornstein, 1985;
Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda,
1990). We are presently examining the early
antecedents of 5-month infant functioning.
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