The relationship between temperament and personality: An exploratory study

Although the terms temperament and personality are often used interchangeably in the literature and clearly are conceptually related, there is little empirical data to illuminate their relationship. In this exploratory study we measured temperament (using the Dimensions of Temperament Survey), and personality (using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), in young adolescents and in adults. Some age and sex differences in relationships between the measures and their correlations were found. The temperament dimension of adaptability was clearly related to Eysenck's Extraversion factor and reactivity to Neuroticism in females. More substantial relationships emerged in the adult sample than in the adolescent group, Our data, combined with that of a 1984 Australian study using different techniques, provides substantial support for measurable overlap between some dimensions of temperament derived largely from the developmental literature, and Eysenck's personality theory.     

New evidence for the prediction of intelligence from infancy

An assumption is made that tests of the infant's ability to recognize a previously seen target tap early cognitive processes similar to those processes employed to solve later tests of intelligence. The recognition memory abilities of normal infants have been found to be superior to those of infants considered to be at risk for later intellectual deficit. Evidence for the predictive validity of infant recognition memory tests emerges from longitudinal studies in which the relationship between the extent of infants' visual preferences for novel targets and later performance on standard tests of intelligence has been examined. Various theoretical and practical consequences flow from these initial discoveries of continuity in intelligent functioning from infancy to childhood.     

Cardiac-somatic integration: An index of visual attention

Eighteen 15-week-old, normal full-term infants were presented with photographic slides of a human facial expression. The infant's heart rate, body movement, and visual attention were recorded simultaneously. The results showed that heart rate and body movement were significantly correlated during visual attention but not during inattention. Both heart rate and body movement decelerated significantly when the infants visually attended to the target stimulus. The results are discussed with reference to cardiac-somatic integration in early infancy and its implication as a possible index of attention.     

Collaborative dialogue patterns in naturalistic one-to-one tutoring

Naturalistic one-to-one tutoring is more effective than traditional classroom teaching methods, but there have been few attempts to examine the features of normal tutoring that might explain its advantage. This project explored dialogue patterns in two samples of naturalistic tutoring with normal unskilled tutors (as opposed to expert tutors): graduate students tutoring undergraduates in research methods and high school students tutoring 7th graders in algebra. We analysed the extent to which those tutoring protocols manifested components that have been emphasized in contemporary pedagogical theories and intelligent tutoring systems: active student learning, sophisticated pedagogical strategies, specific examples and cases, collaborative problem solving and question answering, deep explanatory reasoning, convergance toward shared meanings, feedback, error diagnosis and remediation, and affect. The most prominent components consisted of collaborative problem solving, question answering, and explanation in the context of specific examples. We identify frequent dialogue patterns that characterize these collaborative processes.