Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Psychology
Date of Award
12-2022
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Wallace E. Dixon, Jr.
Committee Members
Alyson Chroust, Eric Sellers
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether developmental researchers were influenced in the laboratory by the characteristics of children who participate in their research. I hypothesized that experimenters, as social partners, would adapt their speaking and other behaviors to the child’s perceived temperamental profile and language proficiency. I specifically focused on whether experimenters would adhere to the experimental laboratory procedure of two elicited imitation tasks, Feed Bear and Make a Rattle, in an archival dataset. Participants included 61 primarily white 15-month-olds. Coders transcribed infant directed speech (IDS) and analyzed transcriptions for total words, words per sentence, and percentage of words with six or more letters. The present study revealed differential correlational findings across temperamental dimensions, experimenter IDS, and elicited imitation tasks. An investigation of this kind provides new information concerning procedural fidelity and how experimenters may be influenced by their child research participants.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Simpson, Tess A., "An Investigation of Lab-Based Research Procedural Fidelity: The Relationship between Experimenter Infant-Directed Speech, Temperament and Language Proficiency" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4141. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4141
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Developmental Psychology Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Quantitative Psychology Commons