INFANT
BEHAVIOR
AND
DEVELOPMENT
17,371-380 (1994)
Antecedents of Information-Processing
Skills in Infants:
Habituation, Novelty Responsiveness,
and Cross-Modal Transfer
MARC H. BORNSTEIN
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
CATHERINE S. TAMIS-LEMONDA
New York University
Three skills which characterize cognitive functioning in human infants in the middle of the first
year of life-habituation,
novelty responsiveness, and cross-modal transfer-predict
mental ability in later childhood. Antecedents of each skill at 5 months postnatal were examined in a shortterm prospective longitudinal study of infant ability and maternal intelligence and interaction
style. Infant perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months, maternal intelligence, and maternal
responsiveness at 5 months relate to the expression of the three infant cognitive skills, but in different ways. Variation in infant information-processing
abilities can be explained by specific
child and maternal factors that are evident soon after birth.
habituation
novelly responsiveness
parenting interactions
In the first year of life, human
infants
process-select,
encode, and remember-nvironmental
information
(Bornstein
& Lamb,
1992). We know this from several “cognitive
skills” they display. Habituation
is the decrement in attention infants pay to a continuously
available or repeated stimulus. Novelv responsiveness
is the recovery in attention infants
show to a new stimulus. Habituation and novelty responsiveness
are everyday reactions of
infants to environmental
stimulation
(Bomstein, 1985a; Bomstein & Ludemann,
1989).
They have been found to be characteristic of
infants from different
parts of the world
(Bornstein
& Ludemann,
1989; Bomstein,
Pecheux, & Lecuyer, 1988; Slater, Cooper,
Rose, & Morison, 1989), and they represent a
fundamental set of mental abilities (Bomstein,
1985a; Fagan & Singer, 1983; McCall &
Carriger, 1993). Habituation and novelty stimuli are often presented to the infant in the same
In memory of Jeffrey Tanaka, colleague, collaborator,
and friend. This research
was supported
by grants
(HD20559) and (HD20807) and by a Research Career
Development
Award
(HDOO521) from the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
to
M.H.B. We thank H. Bomstein, L. Cyphers, J. Genevro,
0. M. Haynes, S. Linnemeyer, J. Tal. and B. Wright for
comments and assistance.
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent
to Marc H. Bomstein, National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development,
Building 3 I, Room B2Bl5,
9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892.
cross-modal
prediction
transfer
sensory modality. Cross-modal
transfer, a third
cognitive skill, reflects the infant’s ability to
evaluate and compare information across different sensory modalities (Rose & Ruff, 1987).
By about the middle of the first postnatal
year, infants clearly vary in their performance
in each of these abilities (e.g., Bomstein &
Benasich,
1986; Colombo & Fagen, 1990).
Significantly,
longitudinal research has shown
that individual differences in the expression of
these abilities in infancy moderately predict
cognitive performance in later childhood. That
is, infants who are more efficient in information processing tend to score higher on childhood assessments
of intelligence,
language
ability, and play sophistication
(Bomstein,
1989~; Bomstein & Sigman, 1986; McCall &
Carriger,
1993; Sigman, Cohen, Beckwith,
Asamow, & Parmelee, 1991; Slater et al., 1989;
Tamis-LeMonda
& Bomstein,
1989, 1993).
These findings from middle infancy beg the
question of what the earlier origins of infant
cognitive skills might be. In this study, we
sought to explore the antecedents of these three
infant information-processing
skills in the context of a prospective longitudinal design. To do
so, we obtained data from infants and mothers
in the laboratory and at home, first at 2 months
and then at 5 months.
At 5 months in the laboratory, infants participated in habituation, novelty responsiveness,
and cross-modal transfer tasks carried out in
371
372
Bornstein and Tamis-LeMondo
standardized ways. Results of these evaluations
constituted
the criterion measures of infant
information-processing
skills in the study.
Infant perceptuocognitive
ability at 2 months,
maternal intelligence, and maternal behavior at
2 and 5 months were evaluated as antecedents
of these information-processing
skills. In the
laboratory at 2 months, infants participated in a
visual paired-comparison
task. Using this paradigm to study memory and discrimination
(albeit with 3- to 7-month-olds).
several investigators have demonstrated reliability as well as
predictive relations to later childhood cognitive
abilities (e.g.. Colombo
& Mitchell,
1990;
Fagan, 1992). To complement these laboratorybased information-processing
assessments
in
infants, we studied naturalistically
occurring
behaviors of mothers and infants at home at the
same two time periods. In particular. in mothers. we contrasted two types of parenting activor enactive
itics: (a) mothers’ spontaneous
engagement of infant and organization of infant
attention to some property, object, or event in
the immediate surround or to mother herself.
and (b) mothers’ responsiveness to infant visual
or tactual exploration of the object world or to
mother. as well as maternal responsiveness
to
infant nondistress
and distress vocalizations.
We compared these two parenting activities
because both have been shown to play roles in
infant cognitive development (Belsky, Goode.
& Most, 1980; Bornstein, l985b, 1989a; Olson,
Bates, & Bayles, 1984). but responsiveness
(with infants in the first year) has been credited
with especially
telling consequences
(Bornstein, 1989b). In order to evaluate the role 01
family intelligence on infant information-processing skills, we also evaluated maternal IQ.
The study began when infants were 2
months of age because at about this age intentionality and flexibility in behavioral organization first emerge-the
child is no longer ,ktus
?.I-utrro (Emde. Gaensbauer. & Harmon, 1976:
Wolff,
19X4)-and
because
mother-infant
exchanges in the third month feature visual
coordination,
speech, and touch (Stern, 1985).
Mothers and infants were revisited at 5 months
because by this age the infant’s scope of apperception has considerably broadened beyond the
dyad: infants look to the environment and reach
out and grasp, and they more actively participate in turn-taking
exchanges (e.g.. Belsky.
Gilstrap, & Rovine, 1984; Bornstein & TamisLeMonda, 1990; Case, 1985; Cohn & Tronick,
1987: Kaye & Fogel, 1980; McCall, Eichorn, &
Hogarty, 1977). Significantly, beginning at this
time, these infant information-processing
abilities are reliable. stable, and possess predictive
validity.
The central focus of this study was to ascertain information about the antecedents of these
information-processing
capacities
in
three
infants. The model underlying the design presumed transaction (Sameroff, l983), the notion
being that infant urld mother intluence one
another’s development through time. The goal
of the analytic approach was to parse the rclative contributions of early infant ability as well
as maternal predictive and concurrent contributions to the nature of variation in these infant
information-processing
capacities.
Thus. WC
expected individual
variation
in the young
infant’s visual discrimination
abilities to be stable and to predict habituation. novelty responsiveness, and cross-modal
transfer. We also
expected that maternal IQ would share variance
with all three infant information-processing
skills. Finally,
we expected
that mothers’
responsiveness would exceed their spontaneous
organization
of infant abilities in predictive
power.
METHOD
Infants and Mothers
P;~rticipant~ were 30 prm~ipurous mothcrs and their infants
(14 IKIICS,16fL_mnle\).
recruited from private pediatric and
obstetric groups in New York City. All infants were term at
birth (M weight = 3.37 kg. SD = 4.0: M length = SO.9 cm.
SD = 2.6) and healthy throu$out
the cour\c of the study.
Infants came from middle- lo upper-socioeconomic
status
(SES) households (M = 5X.3. SD = 5.5, on the Hollingsheatl
Four Factor
Index
(Dcpartmenr
of Sociology.
Yale
Univcr~ity. New Hnvcn. CT): Gottfricd,
19X.5). At both the
2. and S-month &xl-vation\,
mothers completed
brief
questionnaires
which wpplird
demographic
information
about the infants health \tatu\ from birth. their own ctluca
lionill historic\. and 50 l’orth.
Procedures
O\,cr.i,icM,.In totA. there
wcrc‘ I)ur experimental wssim19.
one in the home and one at thr laboratory each when the
infant\ were 2 and 5 months of age. overall .&I\ = 66 and
I6 I day?, SO\ = I 1.O and 7.2. rcqxctively.
Maternal
“re~pon\ivcncss”
“encouraging
;tttention”
and
were
nacssrd
in homehnxd
intuaction
\c\\ion\
at 2 XKI 5
months. In the laboratory. a pnired~compari~on novelty ta\k
WI\ ;tdmini~tcrcd at 2 month\ of ape. and at 5 months an
illlant-controlled
visual hnhituntltrn~reco~~r~
wquence and
Origins of Cognitive Skills In Infants
a visual-[actual
cross-modal
task were administered.
Maternal IQ data were collected on a fifth visit. All visits
were scheduled during times when the infants were in
states of quiet or active alert (Brazelton, 1973), and home
and laboratory visits at each age occurred within approximately 1 week of one another. Home and laboratory sessions were conducted by different observers to minimize
observer knowledge about infant and mother performance
at other times.
Home. Home observations followed the same procedures
at 2 and at 5 months and allowed mothers and infants to be
observed in surroundings familiar to them. Mothers were
asked to behave in their usual manner and to disregard the
observer’s presence insofar as possible. Beside the observer, only mother and infant were present at home; observations took place at optimal times of the day for individual
infants (Bornstein, 1985b; Bomstein & Tamis-LeMonda,
1990). Our purpose was to observe mothers and infants
under the most natural and unobtrusive conditions possible
for each dyad and not to standardize the context of data collection beyond what was normal and ecologically valid. All
observations lasted 45 mins and were conducted in real
time using a sampling technique in which a 30-s observation period was followed by a 30-s recording period (Seitz,
1988). The bounds of each period were signalled to the
observer by a covert automatic timer.
To obtain credit for an enactive engagement, a mother
might touch, gesture towards, or position her infant with
the explicit purpose of engaging the infant to herself, or she
might demonstrate, point, name, or describe in order to
facilitate the infant’s visual and/or tactual exploration of
some aspect of the environment. Maternal responsiveness
consisted of the sum of the z-transformations
of mothers’
proportional responsiveness to infant activities, specifically
visual or tactual exploration of the object world or mother
and infant nondistress and distress vocalizations. Thus, the
two calculations took into consideration base rates of infant
nondistress
activities
and infant distress, respectively
(Bornstein et al., 1992). During the course of the study,
observers were checked for reliability regularly (25% of
observations).
Observer agreement about infant state and
the occurrence
or nonoccurrence
of infant and mother
activities was examined on an interval-by-interval
basis.
For mothers at 2 months, agreement on encouraging infant
attention averaged 94% (range = 85%-98%), responsiveness to nondistress 84% (73%-98%), and responsiveness to
distress 96% (90%-100%); and at 5 months, agreement on
encouraging
infant attention averaged 95% (89%-98%),
responsiveness
to nondistress
82% (X0%-93%),
and
responsiveness
to distress 94% (X0%-100%). Agreement
averaged
2 90% for all infant activities
(range =
90%-970/u). Percent agreement was chosen as the reliability
index owing to the positively skewed distribution of base
rates. In the home, infants were judged to be in states of
quiet or active alert in an average of 91% of the sampling
intervals across the visits.
Lahomfory.
General laboratory arrangements
at both 2
and 5 months were the same. For the visual tasks, stimuli
were projected onto a matte-white stimulus panel (90 cm x
45 cm). A signal lamp (7 mm in diameter) was centrally
embedded in the panel 3.5 cm above the infants’ eye level.
Projectors located in an adjacent control room were used to
present the stimuli, each of which subtended a visual angle
373
of 25”, and when two stimuli appeared together they were
presented 25” to the left and right of the signal lamp. The
infant’s face and lamp light from one projector were televised with a camera whose lens was located in a 1.3.cm
hole in the stimulus panel at the infant’s eye level. The
video signal was displayed on two TV monitors. One monitor was located in the adjacent room and displayed the
infant’s face to the experimenter and mother. The infant’s
face filled approximately 60% of the 20.5-cm TV monitor
screens. Video signals were recorded for subsequent scoring and analysis with the assistance of a microprocessor.
At
2 months, a second monitor supplied feedback to a second
experimenter who held the infant in an over-the-shoulder
position. This feedback allowed the experimenter to adjust
her own and the infant’s body position in order to maintain
orientation of the infant’s head at the midpoint of the two
stimuli while keeping blind to the nature of the stimuli projected. At 5 months, the infant was placed in a standard
infant seat. The infant began to accumulate looking time
when judged to look at the stimulus for a minimum of 0.30
s; this parameter was programmed into the microprocessor.
To terminate a look, the infant had to look away from the
stimulus for a minimum of 1.50 s. Videotapes of infant
looking were scored after sessions for amounts of visual
fixation in seconds during habituation, test, and pre- and
posttest stimulus presentations.
At 2 months in the laboratory, infant perceptuocognitive performance was measured through an assessment of
visual discrimination
ability in a paired-comparison
task.
The stimuli consisted of two lifelike color slides of female
faces wearing affectively
neutral expressions.
Pretests
established that these stimuli were discriminable and equally attractive to infants. A red-and-black
4.5.cycle/degree
square-wave grating served as the pre- and posttest stimulus for this task. All infants were first shown the pretest
stimulus paired with itself for 10 s. Next, the familiarization stimulus, also paired with itself, was presented until
the infant accumulated 60 s of looking time. At achievement of the familiarization criterion, the infant saw four IOs test trials in which the familiar stimulus was presented
with a novel stimulus in counterbalanced
left-right arrangements. Infants were familiarized with one of the two female
faces and tested with the familiar face and the novel face.
Familiarization and test stimuli were randomized and counterbalanced across subjects. Finally, the posttest stimulus
was presented for IO s after the test phase. The relative
amount of responsiveness
to the novel stimulus as compared to the familiar stimulus served as the principal measure of novelty responsiveness.
It was derived using the
standard novelty percentage formula, and novelty percentages were averaged across infants and tested against a
chance value of 50%. Interscorer reliability of visual looking times was high: Two experimenters
independently
scored infant looking from the videotapes on 38% of the
sessions, and they averaged I’ = .97 (range = .84-.99).
At 5 months in the laboratory, infant habituation, novelty responsiveness, and cross-modal transfer were measured,
again following
established
procedures
(Bornstein
&
Benasich. 1986). Habituation
stimuli consisted of color
slides of two faces. Approximately half the infants saw one
face, and half saw the other face. After habituation, infants
were tested with the grating which served as a novel test
stimulus. A three-ring red bull’s_eye was used as the preand posttcst stimulus. Habituation sessions began when the
374
Bornstein and Tamis-LeMonda
infant was in an alert and sated state. Infant involvement
during habituation was coded independently by two experimenters each using the same 5.point scale (5 = involved
and interested to I = crying, does not complete session).
Infants averaged a rating of 4.6 across the session.
All infants experienced the following sequence in habituation. Once the infant was oriented frontally, a stimulus
was projected. Infants first saw a 10-s pretest. Next, the
habituation stimulus was presented using an infant-control
habituation paradigm. Immediately following habituation,
infants were tested with four 10-s trials in which the habituation stimulus and the novel stimulus 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.
A single “look” defined a trial in habituntion. 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 tw’o con\ccutive
look5 each less than SO% of that baseline.
Accumulated looking time (in seconds;) during the habituation session served as the principal measure of habituation;
accumulated
looking time is reliable and stable and
covaries with other measures of habituation, such as peak
look, decrement, and slope (Bornstein, 19X%: Colombo.
Mitchell, O’Brien, & Horowitz. 1987). Novelty responsivenehs was measured in the same manner as at 2 month\.
Interscorer reliability of visual looking times was high:
Two experimenters
independently
scored infant looking
from the videotapes in S2% of the sessions. and they averaged I- = .99 (range = .97-,991.
For the tactual-to-visual
croa\-modal transfer task at 5
months. the stimuli consisted of two pair\ of wooden
object\; within each pair, objects differed only m shape
(curved vs. angular). The average dimensions across pair\
were M height = 3.6 cm. M width = 3.4 cm. and M depth =
I .Xcm. The tasks and stimulus pairs were counterbalanced
across infants, and each object within a pair served equally
often as the novel and familiar stimulus. The two pairs consisted of basic geometric shape5 (i.e.. rectangle, column,
rrlnngle, and knob) with simple planes and matte-finish colors (red and yellow). Preliminary study showed no slimulu\
preferences within or between pairs.
Each infant rat on the parent’s lap in front of a mattcwhite stimulus panel approximately
30 cm’x 70 cm. The
parent wah asked not to talk to or distract the infant. A
fumiliarization-recognitiorl
rest paradigm was uyed with
each task consisting of a 60-s tactual familinrirarion period
followed by a 40-s visual recognition
test period. One
experimenter placed the t%miliariLation s;timulus in one 01
the infant’\ hands (right and left counterbalanced)
shielding
rhe object from view hy cupping her hand? around the
infnnt’s hand. The infant was allowed to nccumulale 60 \ ot
manipulation of the stimulus. Whenever the infant palpaled
the objecl, the first experimenter \ignnlled a second experimenter who cumulated and recorded the time and in rum
\ignalled when Ihe infant achieved the 60-s crilcrion. If the
Infant did not spontaneousI>
palpate the stimulus. the
experimenter
moved
it about
in the infant’\
hand
(Gottfried. Rose, & Bridger, 1977; ROYC. Gottfried. &
Bridger. 1981). During the subsequent visual recognition
test, stimuli were presented on a tray out of the infant’s
reach. The infant was presented successively
with the
familiarized stimulus and the novel stimulus for each of
two 10-s presentations, for a total of four test trials. Stimuli
were affixed centrally on the \liding tray, approximately 28
cm x 30 cm. using small undetectable magnets. The tray
appeared through a rectangular ?&cm x 12.cm opening in
the panel. A small signal light wa\ fastened to the parent’5
shoulder. and infant and signal lights were videorecorded
hy a TV camera through a 1.3.cm hole in the stimulu\
panel at the infant’s eye level. Television monitors behind
the stimulus panel and in the adjacent control room diaplayed the video signal to the experimenter. The relattvc
amount of fixation to the novel stimulus as compared to the
familiar stimulus was evaluated using Ihe standard novelty
percentage formula. Interscorer reliability of visual looking
times was high: Two experimenters independently scored
inf’ant looking from the videotapes on 28% of the sessions.
and they averaged I’ = .9S (range = .8 lL.99).
Mutelnal
IQ. Mothers‘ intelligence was evaluated by a
separate experimenter
on a separate occasion using the
WK~J/YI~
Adult
Intelli,~erwe
S~,crl~LR~,~,i.sed
(WAIS-R:
Wechsler. 1981 ). Two verbal subscales (informatlon and
vocabulary) and two performance subscales (picture completion and block design) were administered:
these subscales demonstrare the s:trongesr associations to total verbal
score. total performance
score, and full scale IQ in the
Wechsler standardiration
\amplc (I.S range = .77-.901.
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
to any statistical
appraisal, univariate data
were inspected in box plots, and bivariate relations were examined in scatter plots (Tukey,
1977). One infant was an outlier on the habituation variable (>3 SDS above the mean), and
data for this infant were eliminated. No other
univariate outliers emerged, and inspection of
bivariate distributions also showed that pairs of
mother, infant, and mother-infant
activities
were not systematically associated in any nonlinear fashion. Neither infant status (gender,
weight and length at birth) nor maternal status
(age, educational
level, Hollingshead
SES)
related systematically
to any of the measured
variables, even though each showed variation.
Statistical
analyses
collapsed
across these
factors.
Prior
Descriptive Statistics and Relations
Among Basic Variables
Table I shows basic statistics for infant and
mother variables. In all cases, the data were
well distributed. At 2 months, infant novelty
responsiveness
on the perceptuocognitive
task
did not differ from chance, t(28) I I .OO.
Infants’ levels of looking on the pretest (M =
Origins of Cognitive Skills In Infants
5.4 s, SD = 2.6) and the posttest (M = 5.4 s,
SD = 2.2) were equivalent, t(28) I 1.00. At 5
months, infants habituated and showed a lofold variation in range of accumulated looking
times to criterion. Four sets of analyses eliminated fatigue and other factors as alternative
interpretations
of habituation.
First, infants
attended equally on pretest trials (M = 6.2 s
SD = 2.7) and posttest trials (M = 5.9 s, SD =
2.7), t(28) < 1.00. Second, infants’ novelty
responsiveness
following habituation
significantly exceeded chance, M = 58.2%, SD = 8.0,
t(28) = 5.56, p < .OOl. Third, a measure of
infants’ looking at the novel stimulus during the
test phase relative to the last two habituation trials significantly exceeded chance, M = 59.2%,
SD = 13.8, t(28) = 3.58, p < .OOl. Fourth,
infants’ attention to the familiar stimulus in the
test phase was equivalent to their attention on
the last two habituation trials, M = 48.6%, SD =
14.0, t(28) <l.OO. Mean percent novelty responsiveness in the test phase was also obtained for
each infant and tested against chance. Infants
showed significant novelty responsiveness, M =
58.2%, SD = 8.0; t(28) = 5.56, p < .OOl. Even
though infants displayed a considerable individual range of novelty responsiveness
in crossmodal transfer, they did not show a significant
group novelty responsiveness,
M = 54.5%,
SD = 14.4, t(28) = 1.54, a not uncommon result
for infants in this age range (Rose & Ruff,
1987). Mothers’ mean IQ was (expectedly)
high, but mothers showed wide individual variation in IQ as well. Both measures of parenting
at both ages were adequately distributed.
A small number of noteworthy correlations
emerged
among
the
maternal
activities.
375
Maternal spontaneous
encouraging
attention
and responsiveness
covaried at 2 months, r =
.32, p < .05; mothers’ spontaneous encouraging
attention was stable between 2 and 5 months,
r = .33, p < .05; and maternal IQ and responsiveness covaried at 5 months, r = .33, p < .05.
Significantly, at 5 months, infant habituation
performance covaried moderately with infant
novelty responsiveness,
r = -.39, p < .05.
(Lower habituation scores are thought to index
more efficient information processing; higher
novelty responsiveness
scores are thought to
index better memory.) Neither habituation nor
novelty responsiveness
related to cross-modal
transfer. The three criterion measures, alone
and in combination
with one another, were
used in the predictive regression analyses.
Predictive Relations
Overview. An examination
of the correlations
between potential predictors and criterion measures showed that only maternal responsiveness
at 5 months, maternal IQ, and infant perceptuocognitive performance at 2 months consistently predicted the 5-month infant information-processing
skills, and that they did so
differentially (Tables 24, column 1). Maternal
encouragement
of attention was uncorrelated
with the criterion variables.
Habituation,
novelty responsiveness,
and
cross-modal transfer might be thought of as
applied indices of infant cognitive skills, in the
sense that longitudinal research shows that each
alone predicts later childhood mental performance. In the first set of predictive analyses,
therefore, we focused on the antecedents of
each of these three information-processing
TABLE1
Descriptive Statistics for
Main Longitudinal Variables
M
Infant
Perceptuoco nitive performonce (%)-2 months
. time (s)-5 months
Accumulate CTlookmg
Novelty responsiveness (%)--5 months
Cross-modal transfer (%)-5 months
Mother
IQ
Encouraging attention (intervals)-2
months
Responsiveness (proportion)-2
months
Encouraging attention (intervals)-5
months
Responsiveness (proportion)-5
months
46.6
73.6
58.2
54.5
125.0
7.7
0.42
10.1
0.38
SD
18.2
46.1
Range
14.4
12.017.5-l
47.024.0-
11.8
4.5
0.25
5.7
0.17
96.0-l 44.0
2.0- 22.0
.081 .OO
1 .O- 24.0
.74
.07-
8.0
80.0
78.5
80.0
81 .O
Bornstein and Tamis-LeMonda
376
individually.
Because two of the three
skills were related, we next asked what the
antecedents of their common latent trait are.
Such a latent trait might index a generalized
underlying information-processing
capacity in
infancy. Last, we explored the origins of two
unique cognitive skills in infants, that is, the
residual of each of the two related cognitive
skills with its correlated skill partialled.
In each analysis, we followed a standard
two-step strategy: (a) exploration of specific
predictive zero-order correlations followed by
(b) regressions involving simultaneous entry of
three predictors found to relate systematically
to the three criteria. In each separate regression
analysis (Tables 2-4), a criterion skill is enumerated in row 1. Under it, row 2 (labeled a.)
provides evidence for the unique concurrent
association (partial correlation) between maternal responsiveness
and that criterion infant
information-processing
skill at 5 months (that
is, with the other two predictors partialled).
Row 3 (labeled b.) provides evidence for the
unique association between maternal IQ and the
infant information-processing
skill at 5 months.
Row 4 (labeled c.) provides evidence for the
unique lagged association between infant 2month perceptuocognitive
capacity and the
infant information-processing
skill at 5 months.
skills
Applied Skills. Following these procedures, we
assessed the unique concurrent
association
between maternal responsiveness
at 5 months
and infant habituation at 5 months, with mater-
Applied Infant Cognitive Skills:
Habituation,
Criterion/Predictors
Habituation
a. Maternal responsiveness 5 months
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant preceptuacagnitive performance 2 months
Novelty Responsiveness
a. Maternal responsiveness 5 months
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant perceptuocognitive performance 2 months
Cross-Modal Transfer
a. Maternal resposiveness 5 months
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant perceptuocognitive performance 2 months
*p< .05. **p<.o1. ***p-c .OOl.
nal IQ and infant perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months partialled. Infant habituation
shares unique variance with maternal responsiveness at 5 months. Infant habituation is also
uniquely predicted by infant perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months. Together, the three
predictors explain a total of 45% of variance in
Infant
novelty
responsiveness
habituation.
shares unique variance with maternal IQ. None
of the three variables uniquely predicts infant
cross-modal transfer; possibly, the poorer reliability of cross-modal transfer, or the age of the
infants in interaction
with the inter- versus
intramodal nature of the cross-modal transfer
test, attenuates predictive validity (Rose, 1989).
Lutent Skill. Because habituation
and novelty
responsiveness
significantly covaried, a model
was developed to examine the antecedents of
their latent variable, constructed of the variance
uniquely shared by habituation
and novelty
responsiveness
(Joreskog & SGrbom, 1988:
Tanaka, 1987; Tanaka, Panter, Winborne,
8r
Huba, 1990). Table 3 shows that the infant
information-processing
latent variable
at 5
months shares variance with maternal responsiveness at 5 months: it is associated with
maternal IQ; and it is predicted by infant perceptuocognitive
performance
at 2 months.
Together, the three predictors explain a total of
54% of variance in the latent variable of infant
information processing.
It is important to note that, although habituation and novelty responsiveness are significant-
TABLE 2
Novelty Responsiveness,
Predictive
Zero-Order
Correlation
r
and Cross-Modal
Partial
r
t
-.41*
-.42"
-.A4
-.30
-.40
2.48'
1.60
2.16'
.25
.42"
-.02
.14
.38
-.08
.71
2.04'
A2
.oo
-.05
.03
.34
.21
.13
1.64
-.53***
.05
.34'
Transfer
Multiple
R?
Model F
A5
6.79"
.20
2.08
.12
.92
Origins
of Cognitive
ly correlated, the magnitude of the r is only
moderate. This result replicated Bomstein and
Ruddy (1984). Therefore, the two variables are
to a degree different and may index different,
if related, processes. Whereas McCall and
Carriger (1993) theorized that the two may
reflect the same mechanism, Jacobson et al.
(1992) observed in an empirical evaluation that
fixation duration and novelty preference loaded
approximately equally on a factor of memory/
attention, but that fixation duration alone also
loaded significantly
on a factor of processing
speed. Furthermore,
habituation
and novelty
responsiveness
as shown here appear to have
identifiably different antecedents.
Unique Skills. Finally, models were developed
to examine the antecedents of infants’ unique
habituation performance (with novelty responsiveness partialled) and infants’ unique novelty
responsiveness
(with habituation
partialled).
Table 4 shows that pure habituation
at 5
months shares a significant amount of variance
with maternal responsiveness
at 5 months and
Skills In Infants
377
is significantly
predicted by infant perceptuocognitive
performance
at 2 months.
Together, the three predictors
in Table 4
explain a total of 38% of variance in pure habitPure novelty
responsiveness
at 5
uation.
months is not accounted for by these variables.
CONCLUSIONS
Perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months,
maternal IQ, and maternal responsiveness
at 5
months
each uniquely
predicts
significant
amounts of variance in infant habituation, novelty responsiveness,
and cross-modal transfer
skills at 5 months, as expected.
Maternal
responsiveness
at 5 months covaried with
applied habituation
and with the latent and
unique information-processing
skills; maternal
IQ was associated with applied novelty responsiveness and the latent information-processing
skill; and infant perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months predicted applied and
unique habituation as well as the latent information-processing
skill. Notably,
predictive
TABLE 3
latent Infant Cognitive Skill: Information Processing
Predictive
Zero-Order
Correlation r
Criterion/Predictors
Information Processing
a. Maternal responsiveness 5 months
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant perceptuocognitive performance 2 months
‘p < .05.
**p < .Ol
‘“p
Partial r
t
Multiple Rz
54
-.5&Y**
-.47”
-.44”
-so
-39
-.44
Model F
9.72”’
2.93”
2.10
2.43’
< ,001.
TABLE4
Unique Infant Cognitive Skills: Habituation and Novelty Responsiveness
Criterion/Predictors
Habituationa
a. Maternal responsiveness 5 months
Predictive
Zero-Order
Correlation r
Partial r
t
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant preceptuocognitive performance 2 months
-.47”
-.27
-.46”
-.40
-.13
-.43
2.20’
.66
2.41’
Novelty Responsivenessb
a. Maternal responsiveness 5 months
b. Maternal IQ
c. Infant perceptuocognitive performance 2 months
.05
.29
-.20
-.02
.30
-.23
.lO
1.59
1.16
0 Novelty responsiveness partialled.
b. Habituation partialled.
*p < .05. **p < .Ol
Multiple R?
Model F
.38
5.14”
.13
1.27
378
Bornstein and Tamis-LeMonda
relations to the latent variable of infant information processing were the strongest and most
consistent. Furthermore, neither mothers’ spontaneously
encouraging
attention
at 2 or 5
months nor their responsiveness
at 2 months
positively predicted any infant information-processing skill. Finally, cross-modal transfer was
not uniquely identified with any antecedent.
Three findings specific to our initial predictions merit comment. First, mother has modestly
important roles to play in her infant’s mental
growth. The data suggest that maternal contingent activities mu’ maternal IQ both predict cognitive development at an early age. Although
maternal responsiveness at 2 months exerted no
concurrent
or predictive
influence,
maternal
responsiveness at 5 months was uniquely associated with infant habituation and informationprocessing skills. Lewis and Goldberg (1969)
also found a concurrent association between
maternal contingent
responsiveness
to infant
nondistress and distress vocalizing and infant
response decrement. Although the concurrent
correlation does not speak to questions of causal
influence, maternal responsiveness at 5 months
has been observed to possess predictive validity
across a variety of domains of child development (Ainsworth
& Bell, 1974; Bomstein,
1989b; Gunnar, 1980; Watson, 1985). By contrast, spontaneous maternal encouragement exercised no predictive validity. The average infant
of 2 months may still be insufficiently mature to
be advantaged by either one of these two maternal didactic strategies; alternatively, either strategy might relate to other concurrent or future
measures of infancy (social competence,
for
example, or exploration). However, the differcntial effectiveness
of the two strategies at 5
months supports “specificity” of effects in the
predictive validity of maternal interaction styles
(Bomstcin.
1989a; Wachs, 1992). These data
also argue the view expressed by Watson (1985)
and others (Bomstein & Lamb, 1992) that contingency may be a powerful and generalized
learning mechanism
in infancy. Perhaps the
infant-control habituation procedure entails the
acquisition of a contingency (when the infant
looks away. the picture shuts off), and infants
experiencing
contingencies
more often (those
with more responsive mothers) learn this contingency more readily.
Second, as expected, matcmal IQ uniquely
predicted infant novelty responsiveness and the
information-processing
latent variable.
This
finding articulates with other indications of a
genetic association to the earliest expression of
skills
in
information-processing
infants
(Colombo & Mitchell, 1990; Thompson, 1989)
but of course provides no evidence of a definitive relation. Parental intelligence
estimates
predict this particular childhood cognitive skill.
and vice versa (DiLalla et al., 1990: Thompson,
1990). However, maternal IQ relates to responsiveness, and responsive behavior in mothers
predicts variation in infant novelty responsiveness. Thus, it is not possible to establish a
causal link. Unfortunately,
causal modelling
cannot be tested here, but this sample constitutes a first step toward future questions about
the interplay among maternal IQ, maternal
behavior, and information processing in infants.
Unexpected was the finding that maternal IQ
did not relate to habituation or to cross-modal
transfer performance in the infant.
Last, early perceptuocognitive
performance
in a visual discrimination
design uniquely predicted later habituation and infant information
processing. This finding suggests stability in
speed of processing across the first 6 months of
life. Infants at 2 months were equated on
inspection time to the stimulus, and so higher
novelty responsiveness
scores might indicate
faster processing of stimulus information. The
prediction to habituation suggests this is what
underlies the earlier measure. (At the same
time, the zero-order prediction to cross-modal
transfer tentatively suggests that the same children are faster at processing intermodal information.) The fact that perceptuocognitive
competence at 2 months predicted habituation at 5
months accords with the findings of Mitchell
and Colombo (reported in Colombo & Fagen.
1990), who showed better short-term prediction
of retention of discrimination
and transfer in .imonth-old infants with shorter fixation durations. The contribution of early to later infant
performance
could reflect endogenous
functioning in some degree. Infants who later in life
are expected to show variation in intelligence
on the basis of birth characteristics (like Down
syndrome) show commensurate
individual differences in attention (see Bornstein. 198Sa. for
a summary). However, the stability result from
2 months postnatal (nearly a year since conccption) by no means fixes the origins of habituation performance in normal infants as endoge-
Origins of Cognitive Skills In Infants
nous. Moreover, these data do not speak to the
next important question of what the antecedents
of individual
variation in perceptuocognitive
performance at 2 months may be.
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21 March
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n