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Focused attention in infancy and the development of effortful control: A longitudinal study from 8 to 22 months
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FOCUSED ATTENTION IN INFANCY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFORTFUL CONTROL: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FROM 8 TO 22 MONTHS Grazyna Kochanska and Kathleen T. Murray Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407 Effortful control, or the ability to suppress a dominant response to perform a subdominant response, has recently surfaced strongly on the research scene as a- construct that is explicitly developmental and, at the same time, an important individual differences variable. As described by Rothbart and Posner, effortful control emerges in the second half of the first year of life, and it plays increasingly important role in development and socialization thereafter. Rothbart further proposed that the capacity for focused or sustained attention that also comes "on line" toward the end of the first year, linked to the concurrent rapid development of the anterior attentional system, underpins and contributes to the emerging effortful control. This model is consistent with research in several areas of psychology that has revealed links between attentional mechanisms and various effortful and self-regulatoryprocesses (for reviews, see Rothbart 6 Bates, in press; Ruff & Rothbart, 1996). We will report the preliminary data from a large longitudinal investigation. We examined the concurrent links between children's capacity for focused or sustained attention at 8-10 months and their fledgling signs of effortful control (operationalizedat this age as the ability voluntarily to suppress desired but prohibited acts), as well as the longitudinal links, where focused attention at 8-10 months was explored as the predictor of the child's performance in a battery of effortful control tasks at 22 months. Children (& - 112) entered the study in infancy. Their capacity for focused or sustained attention was assessed at 8-10 months using a paradigm drawn from the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-Tab; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1994). The baby was placed on a blanket and given three colorful plastic blocks; we coded latency first to look away, duration of orienting, amount of looking and of manipulating, and the intensity of facial attention. Children's emerging effortful control, first assessed also at 8-10 months; was observed when the baby was seated in the immediate proximity to an extremely appealing object (a big, brightly decorated plastic plant) that had been prohibited by the mother. We coded the instances when s/he looked at the plant but spontaneously inhibited touching, despite not being restrained or controlled by the mother. Children's effortful control was assessed again at 22 months, using a battery of tasks targeting capac'itiesfor delaying, suppressing/initiatingbehavior to signal, or slowing down motor activity. Although most findings were modest, the overall pattern of significant results confirmed the links, both contemporaneousand longitudinal, between children's capacity for sustained or focused attention and their effortful control abilities, as predicted by Rothbart. At 8-10 months, the babies who showed more focused attention were also more able spontaneously to refrain from touching the attractive prohibited plant. They also performed better in the effortful control tasks when seen again one year later, at 22 months. Additionally, at 22 months, girls surpassed boys in effortful control, consistent with past research.
FOCUSED ATTENTION IN INFANCY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFORTFUL CONTROL: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FROM 8 TO 22 MONTHS Grazyna Kochanska and Kathleen T. Murray Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407 Effortful control, or the ability to suppress a dominant response to perform a subdominant response, has recently surfaced strongly on the research scene as a- construct that is explicitly developmental and, at the same time, an important individual differences variable. As described by Rothbart and Posner, effortful control emerges in the second half of the first year of life, and it plays increasingly important role in development and socialization thereafter. Rothbart further proposed that the capacity for focused or sustained attention that also comes "on line" toward the end of the first year, linked to the concurrent rapid development of the anterior attentional system, underpins and contributes to the emerging effortful control. This model is consistent with research in several areas of psychology that has revealed links between attentional mechanisms and various effortful and self-regulatoryprocesses (for reviews, see Rothbart 6 Bates, in press; Ruff & Rothbart, 1996). We will report the preliminary data from a large longitudinal investigation. We examined the concurrent links between children's capacity for focused or sustained attention at 8-10 months and their fledgling signs of effortful control (operationalizedat this age as the ability voluntarily to suppress desired but prohibited acts), as well as the longitudinal links, where focused attention at 8-10 months was explored as the predictor of the child's performance in a battery of effortful control tasks at 22 months. Children (& - 112) entered the study in infancy. Their capacity for focused or sustained attention was assessed at 8-10 months using a paradigm drawn from the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-Tab; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1994). The baby was placed on a blanket and given three colorful plastic blocks; we coded latency first to look away, duration of orienting, amount of looking and of manipulating, and the intensity of facial attention. Children's emerging effortful control, first assessed also at 8-10 months; was observed when the baby was seated in the immediate proximity to an extremely appealing object (a big, brightly decorated plastic plant) that had been prohibited by the mother. We coded the instances when s/he looked at the plant but spontaneously inhibited touching, despite not being restrained or controlled by the mother. Children's effortful control was assessed again at 22 months, using a battery of tasks targeting capac'itiesfor delaying, suppressing/initiatingbehavior to signal, or slowing down motor activity. Although most findings were modest, the overall pattern of significant results confirmed the links, both contemporaneousand longitudinal, between children's capacity for sustained or focused attention and their effortful control abilities, as predicted by Rothbart. At 8-10 months, the babies who showed more focused attention were also more able spontaneously to refrain from touching the attractive prohibited plant. They also performed better in the effortful control tasks when seen again one year later, at 22 months. Additionally, at 22 months, girls surpassed boys in effortful control, consistent with past research.