Tutorial 1 Flashcards
What is the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale? (NBAS)
Developed in 1973 by Brazleton and colleagues with an aim to decipher what a baby’s behaviour means. It is suitable for examining a baby up to two months old, but is usually done shortly after birth.
-aims to get baby’s optimal performance through a series of tests
What are two main focuses of the NBAS?
- Neurological adequacy (primitive reflexes) - sucking/rooting, self-protective/defensive reflexes, evolutionary/survival value e.g. poke foot with sharp object, reflexively moves foot away
- Psychological/adaptive capacity - ability to attend to animate or inanimate objects e.g. turning head to hear researcher’s voice & eye-contact. Ability to shut down or inhibit responses e.g. attempt to stop crying by pursing lips/knitting brow. Important as a part of emotional self-regulation.
What are the purposes of NBAS?
clinical assessment
research
education/intervention e.g. parents caregiving strategies
What does Brazleton’s theory related to NBAS propose?
-recognised that a newborn baby is a highly developed organism
What is the Visual Preference Paradigm (Fantz, 1961)?
Infant presented with two stimuli - DV is how long the infant looks at each stimulus. If the infant looks at one stimuli for longer, an inference is made that he/she ‘prefers’ the stimulus more.
What are the advantages & disadvantages of the Visual Preference Paradigm (Fantz, 1961)?
advantages - minimal response demands. Baby does not have to do much for results. Wide scope.
disadvantages - specifying the basis for the difference can be difficult - babies can’t tell us why they looked at one for longer etc.
difficult to interpret negative results
What is the habituation paradigm?
Related to the visual preference paradigm.
A stimulus is repeatedly presented until the infant has habituated (exhibits decreased attention) - then a new stimulus is introduced.
What is the habituation paradigm hypothesis?
Infants can tell the difference between 2 stimuli. If infants can discriminate between the old and the new stimulus, then they should dishabituate (i.e. become more attentive) when another stimulus is presented
Why is habituation/dishabituation adaptive?
habitation - because organisms learn to stop responding to a stimulus that is no longer biologically relevant e.g. don’t need to get scared anymore b/c of loud noise
dishabituation (renewed attention) - can respond when it is biologically relevant
what are the advantages of the NBAS scale?
- enhancing infant-caregiver relationship b/c they can see how the infant organises his/her world and responds to things
- enables the health person to demonstrate clearly to parents/carers the child’s abilities
- adds to other health assessments
What are the two main issues with using infants as participants?
- sampling
- state
Discuss sampling as an issue with using infants as participants
- can’t consent
- infants are a minority setting: can only recruit from specific places e.g. hospitals, childcare, doctors etc. > poses problem as the parents putting their children up are often more educated/rich/have particularly interest in area
- high rates of selective attrition re state
What is a remedy for sampling issues?
recruit from only one setting - i.e. public hospital in many areas. make the offer available to all mothers regardless of age, socioeconomic status, area
Discuss state as an issue with using infants as participants
-regular sleep
-irregular sleep
-drowsiness
- alertness
-inactivity
-waking activity
-crying
Infants need to be quiet and alert which is most conducive to an effective experiment.
State can shift rapidly
Newborns are only awake 10% of the time
Infants typical performance may fail standard of optimal performance
What are the remedies for state issues?
- position of infant (upright)
- pacifiers (e.g. dummy, blanket, fav toy)
- short testing sessions
- get mother to choose when infant comes in
- feed & make sure infant has slept before session
