Unfamiliar Events Research Articles

Infant Predictors of Inhibited and Uninhibited Profiles

Previous research on subjects showing the two temperamental profiles called inhibited and uninhibited to unfamiliar events suggests that the two groups differ in threshold of reactivity to novelty. Hence, variation among infants in behavioral reactivity to unfamiliar events might predict later display of the two profiles. In a longitudinal study of 94 four-month-old infants, those who displayed the combination of high motor activity and frequent crying to stimulation were more fearful to unfamiliar events at nine and 14 months than infants who displayed both low motor activity and infrequent crying. This result implies that the processes that mediate early reactivity to stimulation may also influence a later preparedness to avoid or to approach unfamiliarity.

Temperamental factors in human development.

The initial dispositions to approach or to avoid unfamiliar events are 2 temperamental characteristics of children--among the many that have been described--that appear to be moderately stable over time and associated with distinct, physiological profiles that may be under partial genetic control. The display of high versus low levels of both motor activity and crying to unfamiliar in 4-month-old infants predicts these 2 temperamental profiles in the 2nd year. This fact implies, but does not prove, that variation in the excitability of those brain areas that mediate motor activity and crying participates in the actualization of the temperamental categories called inhibited and uninhibited to the unfamiliar.

Normal aging and prospective memory.

We develop a laboratory paradigm for studying prospective memory and examine whether or not this type of memory is especially difficult for the elderly. In two experiments, young and old subjects were given a prospective memory test (they were asked to perform an action when a target event occurred) and three tests of retrospective memory (short-term memory, free recall, and recognition). From the perspective that aging disrupts mainly self-initiated retrieval processes, large age-related decrements in prospective memory were anticipated. However, despite showing reliable age differences on retrospective memory tests, both experiments showed no age deficits in prospective memory. Moreover, regression analyses produced no reliable relation between the prospective and retrospective memory tasks. Also, the experiments showed that external aids and unfamiliar target events benefit prospective memory performance. These results suggest some basic differences between prospective and retrospective memory.

Physical and physiological correlates of behavioral inhibition.

Previous investigations have suggested that the temperamental quality of inhibition is related to the threshold of reactivity to unfamiliar events within certain limbic structures. In earlier work, children in three independent samples who had been selected to be inhibited were more likely to have blue than brown eyes, whereas uninhibited children were more likely to have brown eyes. The present study, which selected two-year-old children on the basis of eye color (blue or brown) rather than behavior, found a significant association between blue eyes and behavioral inhibition, and between brown eyes and an uninhibited style. Although the inhibited children were more likely to have a high and stable heart rate than were the uninhibited children, there was no relation between eye color and these cardiac measures. Several interpretations of the association between these temperamental categories and iris pigmentation are proposed.

Biological bases of childhood shyness.

The initial behavioral reaction to unfamiliar events is a distinctive source of intraspecific variation in humans and other animals. Two longitudinal studies of 2-year-old children who were extreme in the display of either behavioral restraint or spontaneity in unfamiliar contexts revealed that by 7 years of age a majority of the restrained group were quiet and socially avoidant with unfamiliar children and adults whereas a majority of the more spontaneous children were talkative and interactive. The group differences in peripheral physiological reactions suggest that inherited variation in the threshold of arousal in selected limbic sites may contribute to shyness in childhood and even extreme degrees of social avoidance in adults.

The Physiology and Psychology of Behavioral Inhibition in Children

Longitudinal study of 2 cohorts of children selected in the second or third year of life to be extremely cautious and shy (inhibited) or fearless and outgoing (uninhibited) to unfamiliar events revealed preservation of these 2 behavioral qualities through the sixth year of life. Additionally, more of the inhibited children showed signs of activation in 1 or more of the physiological circuits that usually respond to novelty and challenge, namely, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the reticular activating system, and the sympathetic arm of the autonomic nervous system. It is suggested that the threshold of responsivity in limbic and hypothalamic structures to unfamiliarity and challenge is tonically lower for inhibited than for uninhibited children.

Commentary on Conscientiousness and Work Roles

My first suggestion to a conscientious reader of this article is that to get your money's worth you should read it twice! By mastering Ranken's arguments, you can participate in it for yourself. One reading may not be enough. At its core, Ranken's essay describes the vibrant push-and-pull of one's self and one's role in the corporation in determining ones degree of conscien tiousness. She concludes, I believe, that individuals are mostly driven by self with the mantle of role influencing secondarily. Her presentation and de fense of an individualist thesis is orderly, scholarly and largely persuasive. One is reminded of Polonius's advice, To thine own self be true! But, what else! While reading this article, a voice sounded in my inner ear, There's more to And, the word shimmering recurred. Let me explain. The day-to-day corporate life is more complex and dimensional than self and role. At a minimum, it includes the impact of significant others, (in dividually and in groups), a distinctive institutional culture and an endless chain of situations which flow through the years in the different economic and political environments. Most of what is experienced has a familiarity about it. Occasionally, something entirely unexpected occurs. Emergencies disrupt routines! Even those events are not unfamiliar, in that unfamiliar events occur with regularity, and are not unexpected. That's why the word shimmering is relevant. Life in the corporation is always in motion. Situations are never exactly the same. Even similar si tuations are always different. People in work groups change and patterns shift...sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. The work changes. A job description (role) can be precise or general. However, roles cover a lot of ground. An engineer helping to start up a new plant, or marketing manager introducing a new product might be doing something quite different from the usual routine work pattern. Regular environments change. Testing procedures acceptable one day

Developmental Changes in the Understanding of Temporal Sequence

In 3 experiments, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds' ability to sequence events was examined. We hypothesized that children initially construct temporal sequences by relying on the organization of their world knowledge instead of inferring logical relations among actions. In the first experiment, children generated picture sequences of familiar and unfamiliar events in forward and backward order without having seen the pictures in their correct sequence. In the second experiment, children reconstructed previously seen sequences, and in the third experiment, children were shown forward and backward sequences and reconstructed them in the opposite direction. Across experiments, the same pattern of performance was found; familiar events in forward order were the easiest to sequence, then unfamiliar events in forward order, familiar events in backward order, and finally unfamiliar events in backward order. These results are discussed along with other findings suggesting a similar pattern of performance across a wide developmental age span.

Early Developments in Children's Causal Judgments

SOPHIAN, CATHERINE, and HUBER, ALICE. Early Developments in Children's Causal Judgments. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 512-526. Early developmental changes in children's understanding of causality were examined in 2 studies of 3and 5-year-olds' causal judgments. In both studies, children were asked to judge which of 2 stimuli caused an observed event across a series of problems that provided a variety of alternative cues. The first study examined children's selections from a large number of conflicting cues, using problems based on the movements of a toy train. Nearly all children showed consistent use of 1 or 2 cues, but only 5-year-olds' judgments were in accord with the principle of priority, according to which causes must precede their effects in time. The second study focused on children's responses to conflicts between temporal priority and specific trained knowledge, using 2 different domains of causal judgment problems. Here, both age groups showed some use of temporal priority, but the 5-year-olds showed a better appreciation of its necessary force. These findings were taken to support a hypothesized developmental shift in children's causal reasoning as it pertains to the identification of causes. Early causal reasoning appears to be primarily empirical and based on concrete features of the events in question, whereas later reasoning may be more logical and involve greater reliance on abstract causal principles that enable children to interpret even unfamiliar events.

Understanding mental illness: the experience of families of psychiatric patients.

This qualitative study was designed to elicit the family's perspective of their experience of the first hospitalization of a relative. A major focus of the study was the process by which families developed an understanding of mental illness and its treatment. During unstructured interviews, seven families explained how they interpreted unfamiliar events and surroundings. They identified their needs and concerns related to their interpretation of 'mental illness', and they described their efforts to understand the patient from this perspective. The study identified processes by which families attached meaning to events: they reviewed past experiences and beliefs to make sense of the present experience; they examined their own behaviour as a contributor to the development of the illness; they observed and evaluated the hospitalization as treatment; and they asked questions about the future. The direction for nursing practice was identified in terms of providing support and information to families, as well as being aware of the emotional responses of families at all stages of the patient's illness.

The Effects of Level of Knowledge upon Human Problem Solving in a Process Control Task

The question of what the operator of a dynamic system needs to know was investigated in an experiment using PLANT, a generic simulation of a process. Knowledge of PLANT was manipulated via different types of instructions, so that four different groups were created: 1) Minimal instructions only; 2) Minimal instructions + guidelines for operation (Procedures); 3) Minimal instructions + dynamic relationships (Principles); 4) Minimal instructions + Procedures + Principles. Subjects then controlled PLANT in a variety of familiar and unfamiliar situations. Despite the fact that these manipulations resulted in differences in subjects' knowledge as assessed via a written test at the end of the experiment, instructions had no effect upon achievement of the primary goal of production; however, those groups receiving Procedures controlled the system in a more stable manner. Principles had no apparent effect upon subjects' performance. There was no difference between groups in diagnosis of unfamiliar events.

Young infants' event-related potentials (ERPs) to familiar and unfamiliar visual and auditory events in a recognition memory task

Three studies were conducted to test whether 3-month-old infants demonstrate differential brain activity to familiar and unfamiliar characteristics in compound visual-auditory stimuli. Infrequent changes in the stimuli occurred in: (1) visual characteristics alone (VC study); (2) auditory characteristics alone (AC study); or (3) both visual and auditory characteristics (VAC study). Single trial and average event-related potentials (ERPs) were computed at Oz, Pz, and Cz. In the VC and VAC studies a strong LPC effect was found mainly at Oz and Pz for the average ERPs to the unfamiliar stimuli during the interval 150–600 msec after stimulus onset. In the AC study no evidence for an LPC effects was found in the average ERPs at any location. Linear discriminant functions were used to assess LPC effects for single trial ERPs. A local probability index (LPI) was calculated to examine the effects of prior presentations of familiar events on the infants' responses to specific occurrences of unfamiliar events. In the VC study the LPC was present more often at Pz for infrequently occurring trials preceded by a sequence of three or more familiar stimuli than by only one or two. The same effect was present at Cz in the AC study. Concordance among the discriminants' assessment at each scalp site for individual trials was calculated. The discriminant concordances among the combinations of scalp sites were different for each study resulting in a unique spatial representation of the infants' brain responses in different experimental conditions. These studies provide a paradigm to assess LPC effects during recognition memory tasks using both averaged and single trial evoked potential data in young infants.

Evidence for visual memory in the averaged and single evoked potentials of human infants

When an infrequent or unexpected stimulus is presented to the adult, a characteristic enhancement of the late positive component (LPC) of the averaged evoked cortical potential is observed. To test whether this effect obtains near birth, we presented low and high probability visual stimuli to 29 3-month-old infants in two studies. In Study 1, electrical potentials were recorded from occipital and parietal scalp sites (Oz and Opz), and in Study 2 also from a frontal lead (Fz). A clear LPC effect was observed over the posterior regions between 300-600 msec following the onset of the infrequent stimulus. This is the first demonstration of an LPC effect in infants, reflecting cognitive processing involving memory. A linear discriminant analysis was used to analyze the nature of the LPC effect on single trials. A local probability index (LPI) was calculated to examine the effects of prior presentations of familiar events on the infants' responses to specific occurrences of unfamiliar events. The LPC occurred more frequently for those unfamiliar trials preceded by a sequence of three or more familiar stimuli than by only one or two. Thus, single trial analysis of infant evoked potentials provides an opportunity to assess trial-to-trial variation in the brain's responses to rapidly changing events.