JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 137.52.76.FINKELSTEIN, NEAL W., and RAMEY, CRAIG T. Learning to Control the Environment in Infancy. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 806-819. 34 infants participated in 3 experiments designed to examine the effects of response-contingent stimulation on subsequent performance in different learning tasks. Free operant and discriminative operant responding techniques were used to examine the proposition that experience with responsive stimulation would enhance an infant's subsequent learning performance. The results from the 3 experiments provide support for the central thesis. The mechanisms by which the transfer effects were obtained are discussed and an explanation concerning changes in attentional behavior is offered. Even casual observation of infants reveals their delight in making events occur. The joy of being able to control stimulation was noted many years ago by Groos (1901). Only recently, however, has the dimension of stimulation which can be termed controllability or responsiveness come under experimental investigation (Seligman & Maier 1967; Singh 1970; Watson & Ramey 1972).White (1959) noted that much of human behavior appeared to be directed toward having effects upon the environment without regard to satisfying a physiological need. White urther suggested that interactions with the environment in which behaviors have pronounced effects are selectively continued. More recently, Singh (1970) reported that both children and rats preferred to respond to produce rewards rather than receive the same rewards without having to respond. He concluded that the results supported White's concept of effectance, a motive to attain competence.
Recent correlational evidence suggests that experience at controlling stimulation is positively associated with cognitive and social development. Lewis and Goldberg (1969) re-ported positive correlations between the amount of mothers' contingent responding to their 3-month-old infants' cry and vocal responses and measures of learning obtained from the infants in a habituation test. Further, the amount of infants' experience with social and nonsocial contingent stimulation in the home was found to be positively correlated with performance on scales of infant intelligence (Yarrow, Rubenstein, Pedersen, & Jankowski 1972). Clarke-Stewart (1973) similarlyconcluded that maternal responsiveness to the child's social signals was related to the child's overall competence and appeared to facilitate later intellectual and social development. Finally, a positive relation between mothers' responsiveness to their infants' behaviors and the infants' competence in social communication has been reported by Ainsworth and Bell (1974).
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