Habituation Rate and Free Exploration Tempo in 4-Month-Old Infants

Abstract

If rate of habituation reflects information processing speed and is a stable individual characteristic, fast habituators should habituate relatively quickly to any stimulus, and slow habituators relatively slowly. Moreover, rate of habituation should be related to the baby's tendency to explore in any common situation. To examine these inferences, 24 four-month-old infants were habituated to four stimuli (two geometric patterns and two faces) successively, in two sessions, and observed in a free-exploration situation. The number of trials required to reach criterion in the habituation situations were not correlated, but total looking times to criterion were. Also, slow habituators stayed in the exploration situation for a relatively longer time and also explored a new toy for a longer time. Methodological aspects of habituation are discussed, and an interpretation of habituation sequences in terms of cognitive style is suggested.

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