Infant temperament and subject loss due to crying during operant conditioning

Infants who failed to complete a 2-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis revealed that female infants who cried differed from female infants who did not cry on measures of duration of orienting and latency to approach sudden or novel stimuli. Reliable prediction of crying and noncrying could not, however, be made for males. No sex differences emerged in the incidence of crying or in the number of sessions completed. Partially successful females (i.e., those completing 1 of the 2 sessions) could reliably be discriminated from those who cried during the first session on measures of age at testing and maternal ratings of smiling behavior. The results of this study suggest that, as with habituation studies, subject loss in operant-conditioning studies is influenced by individual differences among the infants which may or may not adversely affect external validity.     

Infant and maternal sensitivity to interpersonal timing

A perturbation paradigm was employed to assess 3- and 6-month-old infants' and their mothers' sensitivity to a 3-s temporal delay implemented in an ongoing televised interaction. At both ages, the temporal delay affected infant but not maternal behavior and only when implementing the temporal delay in maternal (Experiment 1, N=64) but not infant (Experiment 2, N=60) behavior. In addition, the experimental manipulation influenced promptness of maternal smiling responses reliably more than promptness of infant smiling responses. The findings suggest that the timing of maternal behavior plays an important role in infants' perception of maternal responsiveness, whereas mothers seem to monitor general aspects of infant behavior such as overall level of engagement.     

Infant stress and parent responsiveness: regulation of physiology and behavior during still-face and reunion

This study examined infant response and recovery from a social challenge and parent responses. Behavioral and physiological responses were measured from forty-three 5- and 6-month-olds infants during a modified still-face procedure that used an additional still-face reunion sequence. Results confirm the hypothesis that infants of more responsive parents show more regulation than infants of less responsive parents. Infants of more responsive parents showed greater regulation of heart rate and negative affect during the final episode of the procedure than infants of less responsive parents. In addition, this procedure elicited a cortisol response (from .22 microg/dl to .31 microg/dl). Findings suggest important links between parent behavior and infant stress reactivity and regulation.     

Infant temperament moderates relations between maternal parenting in early childhood and children's adjustment in first grade

A differential susceptibility hypothesis proposes that children may differ in the degree to which parenting qualities affect aspects of child development. Infants with difficult temperaments may be more susceptible to the effects of parenting than infants with less difficult temperaments. Using latent change curve analyses to analyze data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, the current study found that temperament moderated associations between maternal parenting styles during early childhood and children's first-grade academic competence, social skills, and relationships with teachers and peers. Relations between parenting and first-grade outcomes were stronger for difficult than for less difficult infants. Infants with difficult temperaments had better adjustment than less difficult infants when parenting quality was high and poorer adjustment when parenting quality was lower.     

Effect of early experience and age on initial responsiveness ofTilapia mossambica fry to a maternal model

Fry of the maternal mouth brooding fishTilapia mossambica were tested for the effects of (1) rearing and (2) increasing age on initial responsiveness to a gray disk covered with small black pits that served as a maternal model. In the first experiment, the eggs were removed from their mother’s mouth shortly after spawning, hatched, and the fry raised in groups, singly in complete visual isolation, or by the mother (control) until testing. When free swimming, the fry were tested individually for responsiveness to the model. High levels of responsiveness were exhibited by all fry regardless of rearing experience, indicating that responsiveness to the mother’s mouth is fully developed at birth and needs no previous social experience for its expression. In the second experiment, naive group-reared fry were tested individually for initial responsiveness to the model at 13, 16, 20, or 26 days postspawning. It was found that naive fry were strongly attracted to the model at 13 and 16 days of age but were neutral or actively avoiding it at 26 days of age. This decline is almost identical to the decline in responsiveness of normally reared fry toward their actual mother.     

The impact of maternal responsiveness and control on change in externalising behaviour problems: differences between regular and special schools

The present study compared 124 adolescents from special schools for students with emotional and behavioural disturbances (EBDs) and 133 regular schooled adolescents with regard to their perceived maternal behaviour. It was also tested longitudinally whether effects of maternal parenting behaviour on subsequent externalising behaviour vary as a function of school type. The two groups did not differ from each other with regard to perceived maternal parenting behaviour. However, an interaction effect of school type and parenting behaviour on externalising behaviour was found. Maternal warmth/support predicted a decrease and maternal strict control an increase in subsequent problem behaviour only for adolescents from special schools. The importance of parenting programmes especially for parents of adolescents attending special schools for students with EBD is discussed.     

Child emotionality and maternal responsiveness as predictors of reunion behaviors in the strange situation: links mediated and unmediated by separation distress

Children's emotionality--fear, anger, and joy--observed outside of the relationship with the mother (in standard laboratory paradigms), and within that relationship (in mother-child interactions), and mothers' responsiveness, all at 9 and 14 months, were examined as predictors of the reunion behaviors in the Strange Situation at 14 months in 112 children. Many predictors were linked to the reunion behaviors, but most of those relations were at least partially mediated by children's separation distress, which itself strongly predicted the reunion behaviors. Those relations were no longer significant when distress was controlled. Several links, however, remained significant, and they were unmediated by distress: Almost all involved measures assessed within the context of the mother-child relationship. In particular, possible markers of a suboptimal relationship (children's dampened joy and increased anger in interactions with the mother, poor maternal responsiveness) were associated with more avoidance and resistance upon reunion, even after accounting for the strong impact of distress. Studying how factors measured outside of and within early relationships influence the components of the attachment system may foster understanding of child behavior in the Strange Situation.     

The effect of crying on long-term memory in infancy

The influence of crying on infants' long-term memory for a learned response was investigated in 3 experiments. In each, infants were trained to move a crib mobile containing 10 identical objects by means of kicking and were then exposed to a reinforcer containing only 2 of these components. This shift in component numerosity produced crying in 53% of the infants. Infants who cried in response to the reward shift evidenced no retention of the contingency 1 week later (Experiment 1) but did have excellent retention at 1 day (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, a brief reactivation treatment alleviated forgetting at 3 weeks regardless of the presence of crying in response to the change in mobiles. An unexpected recency effect characterized the efficacy of the reactivation treatment. The results indicate that crying in response to the violation of a reward-expectation habit functions as an amnesic agent to produce accelerated forgetting.     

庄子:歌与哭的艺术情怀

<庄子>记载了庄子妻死而歌、友亡悲哭两个故事,这一歌一哭虽有悖于世俗规范,却呈现了一种艺术化的人生,庄子的歌与哭不是世俗的挽歌与颂词,而是艺术心灵真挚而深刘的绝唱,蕴含着浓厚的诗意情怀、自由意志、孤独意味和悲剧精神,歌与哭,以两种质朴的世俗形态实践了艺术的本真传迭.     

Infant Neurosensory Development: Considerations for Infant Child Care

Infant brain development is a dynamic process dependent upon endogenous and exogenous stimulation and a supportive environment. A critical period of brain and neurosensory development occurs during the third trimester and into the “fourth” trimester (first three months of life). Disruption, damage, or deprivation in the infant’s social and physical environment can create permanent deficits in the developing neurosensory systems. Implications for infant child care environments are discussed, and a review of quality and standards in infant child care environments leads to a call for improvements to optimize child development.     

Infant and preschool reinforcement survey

An empirically developed infant and preschool reinforcement survey was completed by 35 parents and 21 children. Test-retest reliability coefficients were computed on these data after a one-week interval. The development of the survey, as well as its usefulness for school psychologists, is described.     

Prematurity,maternal emotional distress,and infant social responsiveness among Arab-Bedouin families: The role of social support as a resilience factor

This study investigated predictors of early infant social development and the role of social support as a resilience factor among Arab-Bedouin families. We propose a mediation model in which social support will be related to maternal postpartum emotional distress (PPED), which in turn will be related to infant social responsiveness. One hundred five Arab-Bedouin mothers (age range = 17–44 years) and their preterm (n = 48) and full-term (n = 57) infants were recruited shortly after birth and were followed up at age 12 months. Findings demonstrate that, among the preterm group, higher levels of social support predicted lower levels of maternal PPED, and this, in turn, predicted higher levels of infant social responsiveness.     

Empirical classification of infant-mother relationships from interactive behavior and crying during reunion

Multiple discriminant function analysis (MDFA) was conducted with data from 255 Strange Situations conducted and scored by Ainsworth and her colleagues. Cross-validated discriminant functions and classification weights were obtained, allowing attachment classifications (A, B, C) to be assigned directly from scores on interactive behavior and crying during reunion episodes. In the past, classification agreement within laboratories has often been used as a training criterion. Unfortunately, this does not insure that classification criteria agreed upon within a laboratory are comparable across laboratories, nor does it insure that agreed upon criteria will yield the same classifications that would have been assigned by the researchers who developed the scoring system. The present results enable researchers who have mastered the scoring systems for reunion behavior and crying to obtain attachment classifications directly from scores on these variables. Alternatively, this procedure may be used to guide the training of, and validate classification decisions by, local judges.