Selected Abstracts

Choudhury, N. & Gorman K. S. (2000). The relationship between attention and problem solving in 17-24 month old children. Infant and Child Development.

Abstract. The ability to sustain attention is associated with performance on cognitive tasks in school aged children, however, much less is known about this relationship in infancy. The purpose of this study was to investigate individual differences in sustained attention and performance on two types of cognitive assessments. Participants were sixty-one 17 to 24 month old toddlers. Indices of sustained attention (duration of attention and frequency of off-task glances) were assessed during two 4 minute cognitive problem solving tasks and then related to performance on problem solving tasks and the cognitive index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. As expected, toddlers who attended to tasks for longer periods of time were more successful at problem solving than toddlers who attended for shorter periods of time. There was a developmental trend such that older toddlers had longer attention spans, more frequent off-task glances and were more successful at problem solving than young toddlers. Interestingly however, toddlers with more frequent off-task glances had longer attention spans, were more successful at problem solving and had higher MDI scores than peers. These findings suggest that, at the behavioral level, the expression of sustained attention is more complex than had been previously assumed. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of infant attention and cognitive performance.

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Lourie, A. E., Gorman, K.S., & Choudhury, N. (under review). Differential patterns of development in SGA and NBW infants: The interaction of birth weight, temperament and maternal behavior. Infant Behavior and Development.

Abstract. A 6-month study of 83 families compared patterns of development between small for gestational age (SGA) and normal birth weight (NBW) infants. Data were collected on infant behavior at 1 and 3 months, maternal behavior at 1, 3 and 6 months and developmental outcomes at 6 months. The purpose was to investigate relationships between infant and maternal behavior and developmental outcomes as a function of birth weight. Analyses of variance revealed few group differences between SGA and NBW infants. As expect, however, birth weight interacted with a number of infant and parenting variables yielding subtly different patterns of development for SGA and NBW infants. Further, birth weight also moderated the relationship between parenting and developmental outcomes at 6 months. These findings support the hypothesis that even subtle differences in birth weight influences the interplay of parenting and developmental outcomes.

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Stith, A., Gorman, K.S & Choudhury N. (under review). Beyond primary school: Psychosocial risk and gender. Applied Psychology: An International Review.

Abstract. This study examines the effects of gender and early biological, social, and psychological risk factors on educational attainment in rural Guatemalan adolescents. The present sample was comprised of 333 adolescents (156 females and 177 males) who had participated in a longitudinal study on the effects of early supplementary feeding on cognitive development. Results indicate that adolescents exposed to increasing numbers of early risk factors were less likely to seek education beyond primary school. Further, while males and females had experienced similar number of risk factors during early childhood, significantly fewer girls pursued education beyond the primary level and increased risk was associated with the decreased likelihood of education for girls but not for boys. These findings are interpreted in light of the importance of formal education for the economic and social welfare of females in developing countries and for the health and well-being of their children.

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Choudhury, N. & Gorman, K. (1999). The validity of reaction time as a measure of intelligence in a rural Guatemalan adolescent population. International Journal of Psychology, 34(4), 209-217.

Abstract. In industrialized countries reaction time has been found to be related to measures of intelligence and cognitive abilities. Little, however, is known about the validity of using such tasks in nonindustrialized countries. The present research investigated the association between reaction time and psychometric intelligence in a rural Guatemalan adolescent population. Results indicate that speed and consistency of processing on reaction time tasks were related to psychometric intelligence. However, the magnitude of these relationships were considerably smaller than those reported in industrialized populations. Reaction time task performance accounted for less than 5% of the variance in psychometric intelligence. Findings suggest that although reaction time tasks are associated with intelligence, the predictive validity of such measures need to be established before use in nontraditional populations.

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