Biomedical subjects

E C Goldfield

Publications and source records attributed to E C Goldfield.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Adolescent problem behaviors as predictors of adult alcohol diagnoses.

Young adult alcohol problems based on DIS/DSM III diagnoses were predicted from a number of adolescent risky/antisocial behaviors in a sample of 693 subjects. The number of times an individual was intoxicated before his/her sixteenth birthday was the best indicator of adult alcohol "abuse" and /or dependence, with adolescent fighting, arrests, and lack of participation in religious activities also serving as important problem behavior predictors. Results of correlational and principal-components analyses of adolescent problem behaviors are similar to previous work on Problem Behavior Theory. The results suggest that prevention efforts should begin before adolescence, prior to the time when individuals are exposed to, or begin practicing, adult health-threatening activities.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Infant bouncing: the assembly and tuning of action systems.

We outline a theory of infant skill acquisition characterized by an assembly phase, during which a task-specific, low-dimensional action pattern emerges from spontaneous movement in the context of task constraints, and a tuning phase, during which adjustment of the system parameters yields a more energetically efficient and more stable movement. 8 infants were observed longitudinally when bouncing while supported by a harness attached to a spring. We found an initial assembly phase in which kicking was irregular and variable in period, and a tuning phase with more periodic kicking, followed by the sudden appearance of long bouts of sustained bouncing. This "peak" behavior was characterized by oscillation at the resonant frequency of the mass-spring system, an increase in amplitude, and a decrease in period variability. The data are consistent with a forced mass-spring operating at resonance.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗

PubMed1986

Spatiotemporal linkage in infant interlimb coordination.

Timing and direction of movement of the arms and hands of 7- and 11-month-old infants were examined during bimanual reaching for a transparent cube. Videotape analysis of frames from release of the hands to initial contact of one hand with the cube revealed that hand movement was more often temporally linked for 7-month infants than for 11-month infants. Also, at 7 months, the hands moved toward the cube in the same direction, whereas at 11 months, they moved in opposite (complementary) directions. Thus, although both 7- and 11-month infants perform bimanual reaching, at 7 months the 2 hands are linked both in timing and direction of movement in a fashion different than at 11 months.

Child Development↗

PubMed1984

The use and effectiveness of maternal scaffolding in mother-infant games.

Maternal behaviors within mother-infant games were examined to determine the amount, type, and functional value of maternal helping behaviors. 17 mother-infant pairs were videotaped on monthly visits from 8 to 16 months as they played 5 separate games. 2 of these games, roll the ball and peekaboo, were analyzed in terms of "rounds" of each game. Results show that dyads play more rounds of both games in the first months that infants perform game-relevant behaviors (e.g., returning a ball, performing uncovering or covering-uncovering). Maternal attention-getting and physical "stage-setting" behaviors occur in the early rounds of both games. In roll the ball, maternal hands-out and reinforcement behaviors increase in the months after the child begins to return the ball, while the percentage of rounds in which dyads play nonreturn variants decreases. Infants are more likely to return a ball when mother holds out her hands than when she does not. Infants are also able to perform returning or uncovering in game contexts before they perform similar behaviors in cognitive tests. The general similarity of findings in the peekaboo and roll-the-ball games, in spite of differences in the amounts of scaffolding, attention-getting, stage-setting, and reinforcement behaviors between the 2 games, indicates that the types and functions of maternal helping behaviors may be generalizable to other contexts of mother-infant interactions.

Child Development↗

PubMed1981

Development of logical search and visual scanning in children.

Children at 5, 6, 7, and 8 years of age were told a story in which a doll traveled through a physical model of a house. The doll had a toy in one room and, then, three rooms after, discovered it to be missing. Tests were made of logical search (i.e., the tendency, when asked to find the toy, to restrict search to the critical area between the rooms). The presence of visual cues that marked the critical area was manipulated, and the visual scanning of these cues was monitored. Children in the two younger groups exhibited virtually no logical search either when cues were absent or present, 7-year-old children showed logical search only when cues were present, and 8-year-old children showed logical search both when cues were absent and present. In the cues-present conditions logical search was related to visual scanning of the cues.

Child↗