Prediction of Intelligence from Early Indicators of Infomation Processing Capabilities
Final Report Abstract
Data collection at ages three and six-months required a total of 1143 dates in an interval of about 2 years (127 dyads with 6 dates each). In fact, the number of dates was even higher, because several dates had to be repeated, because the children were crying, tired or fuzzy. Moreover, an additional sample was necessary to be able to search for possible attention getter influences. Because of the large number of dates required, the data collection took somewhat longer than expected. Moreover, it was difficult to recruit more dyads, because the birth rate in the region of Marburg was too low to allow more recmitments. Taken into account that some additional months were needed for the preparation ofthe data and the dataanalysis, it took some additional time to be able to start with the documentation ofthe results. We are now able to provide five manuscripts that were submitted to intemational journals. One of the manuscripts is already accepted for publication, in two cases we were invited lo provide a revised version and the other two manuscripts are submitted. A sixth manuscript (Lissmarm, Domsch, & Lohaus, 2006) is related to the stability and valididy of developmental scores assessed by a German developmental test (the ET 6-6). The ET 6-6 by Petermann and Stein (2005) was used additional in parts ofthe longitudinal sample. This paper was published in a German joumal and uses data from this longitudinal study. A seventh manuscript is in preparation and the focus will be on the differentiafion between stable and instable infants on the basis of the reliability model outlined in the paper by Thomas, Lohaus and Domsch (2008). The main question will be if the infants identified as stable infants during the assessments with three and six months of age show better predictability of later intelligence measures in comparison to unstable infants. This would underline the usefulness of the proposed reliability model in research with infants. To conclude, the research project could be carried out successfully despite of the high effort that was necessary to collect the longitudinal data. It should also be noted that the attrition rate was rather low with the result that most infants could be traced longitudinally.
Publications
- Lissmann, I., Domsch, H., & Lohaus, A. (2006). Zur Stabilität und Validität von Entwicklungstestergebnissen im Alter von sechs Monaten bis zwei Jahren: Eine Analyse am Beispiel des ET 6-6. Kindheit und Entwicklung, 15, 35-44.
