Do helpful mothers help? Effects of maternal scaffolding and infant motivation on cognitive performance
Article
Clackson, K., Wass, S., Georgieva, S., Brightman, L., Nutbrown, R., Almond, H., Bieluczyk, J., Carro, G., Rigby Dames, B. and Leong, V. 2019. Do helpful mothers help? Effects of maternal scaffolding and infant motivation on cognitive performance. Frontiers in Psychology. 10 (Art. 2661). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02661
Authors | Clackson, K., Wass, S., Georgieva, S., Brightman, L., Nutbrown, R., Almond, H., Bieluczyk, J., Carro, G., Rigby Dames, B. and Leong, V. |
---|---|
Abstract | Infants are highly social and much early learning takes place in a social context during interactions with caregivers. Previous research shows that social scaffolding – responsive parenting and joint attention - can confer benefits for infants’ long-term development and learning. However, little previous research has examined whether dynamic (moment-to-moment) adaptations in adults’ social scaffolding are able to produce immediate effects on infants' performance. Here we ask whether infants' success on an object search task is more strongly influenced by maternal behaviour, including dynamic changes in response behaviour, or by fluctuations in infants' own engagement levels. Thirty-five mother-infant dyads (infants aged 10.8 months, on average) participated in an object search task that was delivered in a naturalistic manner by the child’s mother. Measures of maternal responsiveness (teaching duration; sensitivity) and infant engagement (engagement score; visual attention) were assessed. Mothers varied their task delivery trial by trial, but neither measure of maternal responsiveness significantly predicted infants’ success in performing the search task. Rather, infants’ own level of engagement was the sole significant predictor of accuracy. These results indicate that while parental scaffolding is offered spontaneously (and is undoubtedly crucial for development), in this context children’s endogenous engagement proved to be a more powerful determinant of task success. Future work should explore this interplay between parental and child-internal factors in other learning and social contexts. |
Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
Journal citation | 10 (Art. 2661) |
ISSN | 1664-1078 |
Year | 2019 |
Publisher | Frontiers Media |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Repository staff only |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Anyone |
Supplemental file | License File Access Level Anyone |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02661 |
Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02661 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 28 Nov 2019 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 11 Nov 2019 |
Deposited | 19 Nov 2019 |
Funder | Economic and Social Research Council |
Nanyang Technological University | |
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship | |
Economic and Social Research Council | |
Copyright holder | © 2019 The Authors |
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/874v2
Download files
Publisher's version
fpsyg-10-02661.pdf | ||
License: CC BY 4.0 | ||
File access level: Anyone |
Supplemental file
HT_Supplementary Materials_revised_Oct_2019.pdf | ||
License: CC BY 4.0 | ||
File access level: Anyone |
274
total views252
total downloads0
views this month1
downloads this month