Relations between cyclicity and regulation in mother-infant interaction at 3 and 9 months and cognition at 2 years

This report addresses the relation between early interactive rhythms as determined by microanalysis and later toddler cognition. Thirty-six mother-infant dyads were videotaped in free play at 3 and 9 months. Mother and infant attentive states were recorded on an attentive-affective scale in .25s intervals and analyzed using time-series techniques. Synchrony between time-series of mother and infant was examined with cross correlations. At 2 years children were tested with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. A stochastic-cyclic organization of the infant's attention at 3 months (a pattern reflecting some degree of oscillation between attentive states) predicted general and verbal IQ. At 9 months, organized but not cyclic infant play predicted general IQ. Two measures of maternal regulation at 3 months, mother synchrony with the infant assessed by microanalysis and maternal regulation assessed globally, predicted visual IQ. The temporal organization of infant social attention was individually stable from 3 to 9 months and had concurrent and long-term correlations with mother-infant synchrony. Results are discussed in terms of information processing, the relations of biological, social, and cognitive regulatory mechanisms, and the associations between self- and mutual regulation during the first year and cognitive competence.