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J J Campos

Publications and source records attributed to J J Campos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The flip side of perception-action coupling: locomotor experience and the ontogeny of visual-postural coupling.

The possible role of motor development on psychological function is once again a topic of great theoretical and practical importance. The revival of this issue has stemmed from a different approach to the topic, away from Gesell's interest in the long-term prediction of psychological functions from early motoric assessments, toward an attempt to understand how the acquisition of motor skills orchestrates psychological changes. This paper describes how the acquisition of one motor skill, prone locomotion, has been linked to developmental changes in an infant's ability to regulate posture based on information available in patterns of optic flow. It is argued that the onset of prone locomotion presses the infant to differentiate spatially delimited regions of optic flow to effectively and efficiently control the important subtasks nested within the larger task of locomotion, namely, steering, attending to the surface of support, and maintaining postural control. Following this argument, a research program is described that aims to determine if locomotor experience is causally linked to improvements in the ability to functionalize peripheral optic flow for postural control or whether locomotor experience is merely a maturational forecaster of such improvements. Finally, a hypothesis is put forward that links the emergence of wariness of heights to infants' ability to regulate posture on the basis of peripheral optic flow. The paper's overarching theoretical point is the principle of probabilistic epigenesis, which states that one developmental acquisition produces experiences that bring about a host of new developmental changes in the same and different domains.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Genetic analyses of focal aspects of infant temperament.

The authors explored the genetic and environmental underpinnings of individual differences in temperament with a sample of 604 3- to 16-month-old infant twins and their parents. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ), and a subsample of 140 9-month-old twins participated in behavioral assessment of temperament in the laboratory as well. For IBQ Smiling and Laughter and Duration of Orienting, both additive genetic and shared environmental effects were needed to best represent the data. Shared environmental effects fully accounted for cotwin similarity for IBQ Soothability, and conversely, additive genetic effects fully accounted for cotwin similarity for the IBQ Distress to Limitations, Distress to Novelty, and Activity Level scales. With the subsample, the authors fit a multivariate model to mother report, father report, and lab measures of stranger distress and found that genetic influences were most important for the covariation among these measures.

Arousal↗
PubMed1995

Affective reorganization in the infant, the mother, and the dyad: the role of upright locomotion and its timing.

Clinical theory is replete with rich observations that the onset of walking engenders an enhancement of emotional expression in the infant. Yet, no empirical research exists on this subject. Moreover, the importance of normal timing variations in the onset of developmental transitions has not been a topic of investigation in most developmental research. In this naturalistic home study, "earlier" and "later" walking groups were delineated on the basis of timing of entry into this developmental transition. Age-held constant analyses indicated that earlier walkers and their mothers generally showed a rise in positive exchanges as well as "testing of wills" across the transition to walking. These changes were less clear for the later walkers. Differences were observed also between the two groups even prior to walking. These findings suggest that future studies should take account of timing variations in the onset of a developmental transition.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

The structure of temperamental fear and pleasure in infants: a psychometric perspective.

Despite the prominence of temperament constructs in the study of infant development, little evidence exists about the internal structure of temperament. We assessed temperament both via questionnaire and in repeated laboratory visits for 168 9-month-old twins and singletons. Mothers' and fathers' agreement on temperament questionnaire scales was low, except for scales tapping negative emotionality and activity level. The factor structure of mothers' and fathers' questionnaire scales also differed, with fathers tending to associate higher motoric activity with hedonically positive behaviors. We measured fearfulness during 2 visual cliff episodes and a stranger approach, and we measured joy/pleasure during a series of 4 games. For both fearfulness and pleasure we found moderate cross-situation generality, short-term stability, and convergence with specific temperament questionnaire scales. Parameters of response, such as latency, duration, and intensity, intercorrelated within--but not across--response types. Fearful distress and avoidance proved to be uncorrelated. The results suggest that the component behaviors of infant fearfulness and pleasure are structured in a fashion consistent with a temperamental interpretation.

Arousal↗
PubMed1988

Locomotor experience: a facilitator of spatial cognitive development.

2 studies were designed to test the prediction that spatial search strategies (i.e., "object permanence") may be influenced by locomotor experience. Infants were assigned to 3 groups based on locomotor history: prelocomotor, prelocomotor with walker-assisted experience, and hands-and-knees creeping. Infants in all groups were 8.5 months of age. Results showed that hands-and-knees and walker-assisted locomotor experience facilitated spatial search performance. The longer that infants had been moving, the higher their scores. Furthermore, there were no differences between the hands-and-knees and prelocomotor/walker-assisted groups, suggesting that the relation between locomotor experience and spatial search performance was not merely a function of the maturation of prone progression. A third study found that the quality of locomotion affected object permanence performance: Belly crawlers performed differently than infants with hands-and-knees or walker experience, insofar as they performed at prelocomotor levels regardless of weeks of locomotor experience. Taken together, the pattern of findings suggests that infants with more efficient modes of locomotion are more likely to profit from the experiences generated by locomotion.

Child Development↗
PubMed1987

New directions in the study of early experience.

In this commentary, we review Greenough, Black, and Wallace's conceptual framework for understanding the effects of early experience, and illustrate the applicability of their model with recent data on the consequences for animals and human infants of the acquisition of self-produced locomotion.

Brain↗
PubMed1984

A new perspective on emotions.

This paper reviews the recent history of the study of human emotions in psychology and traces the factors that have been responsible for a remarkable increase of interest in emotions, especially in human development. In particular, it traces the rise of the study of emotions as regulators of human behavior. A particularly clear and powerful illustration of the regulatory role of emotional expressions on behavior is the phenomenon of social referencing. This concept deals with the use of emotional information in another's facial, vocal or gestural expression to clarify uncertain situations. Research on social referencing is reviewed, showing the importance of social referencing with infants as young as 8.5 months. The clinical implications of the concept are briefly explored.

Affect↗
PubMed1983

The facial expression of anger in seven-month-old infants.

This study concerned whether anger can be observed reliably in facial expressions as early as 7 months of age in a sample of 30 infants. It also assessed the influence of several variables on anger responses: infant's familiarity with the frustrator (mother vs. stranger), repetition of trials, and sex of the child. Correlations were obtained between the expression of anger and cognitive developmental level, maternal perceptions of irascibility (temperament), time since eating or sleeping, and facial flushing. Dependent variables included facial expression components as well as ratings of facial flushing. We found that the capacity to express anger is well developed by 7 months of age: facial patterning was detected reliably in the absence of contextual information, and repeated frustrations increased the amount of anger shown. No significant relationships were found, however, between facial expression of anger and temperament, drive states, or cognitive developmental scores.

Anger↗