Antecedents of Information-Processing Skills in Infants: Habituation, Novelty Responsiveness, and Cross-Modal Transfer

Three skills which characterize cognitive functioning in human infants in the middle of the first year of life-habituation, novelty responsiveness, and cross-modal transfer-predict mental ability in later childhood. Antecedents of each skill at 5 months postnatal were examined in a shortterm prospective longitudinal study of infant ability and maternal intelligence and interaction style. Infant perceptuocognitive performance at 2 months, maternal intelligence, and maternal responsiveness at 5 months relate to the expression of the three infant cognitive skills, but in different ways. Variation in infant information-processing abilities can be explained by specific child and maternal factors that are evident soon after birth.