The relationship of novelty preferences during infancy to later intelligence and later recognition memory

• Published in: Intelligence (Norwood) 1984-01, Vol.8 (4), p.339-346
• Main Author: Fagan, Joseph F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Child development; Developmental psychology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology
• ISSN: 0160-2896; 1873-7935
• DOI: 10.1016/0160-2896(84)90016-3

In the present study, a group of children originally tested for visual novelty preferences at 7 months and seen for estimates of intelligence at 3 years were revisited and tested for intellectual functioning and for visual recognition performance at 5 years. Prediction from performance at 7 months to intellectual functioning at 5 years was significant and remained at the same level as prediction from 7 months to 3 years ( r = .42 at each point). In addition, it was shown that data on early novelty preferences could be combined with information on birth-order and parental education to achieve good prediction ( R = .65) of five-year IQ scores. A further goal of the present study was to discover if infants' preferences for visual novelty, assumed to be an early measure of visual recognition memory would be more highly associated with later visual recognition performance or with later intellectual level. The results indicate that novelty preferences were more highly related to later intelligence quotients than to later recognition performance and such a pattern of relationships did not to be artificial.