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The importance of using multiple outcome measures in infant research
Vanessa LoBue1, Lori B Reider1, Emily Kim1
1Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
Insights
Infant research benefits from multiple outcome measures to increase rigor and accurately interpret data. Using converging measures reveals complex developmental patterns, like attention biases for threat.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Infant Research Methods
Background:
- Infant data collection is challenging, often resulting in small samples and single measures.
- This limits the rigor and interpretability of findings in developmental studies.
- There is a growing need for enhanced academic rigor in psychological research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To illustrate the importance of employing multiple outcome measures in infant research.
- To demonstrate how converging measures enhance data interpretation and reveal complex developmental processes.
- To provide practical and statistical recommendations for implementing multiple measures.
Main Methods:
- Review of initial studies using single outcome measures in infant research.
- Analysis of research employing multiple, converging outcome measures.
- Examples from studies on rapid threat detection and broader infancy literature.
Main Results:
- Single measures can obscure rich and complex developmental phenomena, such as attention biases.
- Converging measures allow for more robust inferences about infant behavior and development.
- Multiple measures facilitate deeper examination of the mechanisms driving developmental change.
Conclusions:
- Utilizing multiple outcome measures is crucial for increasing rigor in infant research.
- Converging evidence from multiple measures provides a more comprehensive understanding of infant cognitive and behavioral development.
- Recommendations are provided for researchers to effectively implement multiple measures in future studies.
Abstract:
Collecting data with infants is notoriously difficult. As a result, many of our studies consist of small samples, with only a single measure, in a single age group, at a single time point. With renewed calls for greater academic rigor in data collection practices, using multiple outcome measures in infant research is one way to increase rigor, and, at the same time, enable us to more accurately interpret our data. Here, we illustrate the importance of using multiple measures in psychological research with examples from our own work on rapid threat detection and from the broader infancy literature. First, we describe our initial studies using a single outcome measure, and how this strategy caused us to nearly miss a rich and complex story about attention biases for threat and their development. We demonstrate how using converging measures can help researchers make inferences about infant behavior, and how using additional measures allows us to more deeply examine the mechanisms that drive developmental change. Finally, we provide practical and statistical recommendations for how researchers can use multiple measures in future work.
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