Individual differences in habituation rates and object concept performance

The scores from object concept tasks for 15 infants at 14 months of age were analyzed with respect to their habituation rates at 4 months of age. Partitioning of the data according to subjects categorized as fast and slow habituators brought some organization consistent with the notion that the former are more advanced than the latter. Statistical differences between groups did not obtain, but a significant correlation between ranked task scores and habituation ratios offers some support to the interpretation. The possibility of using habituation rates or ratios as an index of differences in processing, perhaps with some predictive value, may be considered if further evidence of relations to later cognitive performanceis found.