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Updated: Sep 5, 2026

P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
Published on: December 26, 2013
Preschoolers' inhibition in their home: relation to temperament
Anja Ullrich1, Marjorie Carroll, Joyce Prigot
1Department of Psychology, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY 11439, USA.
Abstract:
Researchers assessed 58 preschoolers' reactions to an unfamiliar person and unfamiliar objects in their familiar home environment. Children participated in a 30-min procedure designed to elicit behavioral inhibition, including (a) a free-play period with a stranger present, (b) a structured interaction with the stranger, and (c) uncertainty-eliciting tasks. Behaviors representing the child's reactions toward the mother, stranger, and novel objects were coded. Mothers completed a temperament scale. Preschoolers exhibited behaviors indicative of inhibition toward unfamiliar social and nonsocial stimuli; behaviors remained stable across increasingly intrusive episodes. The approach/withdrawal component of temperament was related to behavioral inhibition. Individual differences in mood did not appear to be related to differences in inhibition. Parent reported temperament was related to researcher-observed behaviors.
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