Infant temperament and subject loss due to crying during operant conditioning

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Infant Behavior Studies

Background:

• Operant conditioning tasks are used to study infant behavior.
• Subject attrition can affect the external validity of research findings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate infant temperament and demographic factors influencing completion of an operant conditioning task.
• To determine if individual differences predict task success or failure.

Main Methods:

• Comparison of infants who failed to complete a 2-day operant conditioning task with those who did.
• Discriminant-function analysis of infant temperament and demographic data.
• Assessment of crying behavior, duration of orienting, and latency to approach stimuli.

Main Results:

• Female infants who cried differed significantly in orienting duration and approach latency compared to non-crying females.
• Predicting crying and non-crying was unreliable for male infants.
• Partially successful female participants were distinguishable from those who cried during the first session based on age and maternal ratings of smiling.

Conclusions:

• Infant temperament, particularly crying in females, is associated with operant conditioning task completion.
• Individual differences among infants may influence subject loss in conditioning studies.
• Subject loss in operant conditioning may affect the external validity of findings, similar to habituation studies.