A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. II. Six-week-old infants.
Ten clinically normal 6-week old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers and simultaneously videorecorded. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations, observers were permitted to see the babies for 10 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec was a prestimulus observation period, and the second 5 sec might have contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to note (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements, and "wholistic" impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was fair for prestimulus activity, modest for confidence in response, and fair to good for movement items. The use of videorecorded material for 6-week  old infants generally caused rather small losses of relevant information and apparently will not overly distort the findings of experimental or clinical work. This outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier study of neonates.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D002652:Child Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D012107:Research Design; D014743:Videotape Recording