What Do Infant Mental Tests Test? A Cross-lagged Panel Analysis of Selected Data from the Berkeley Growth Study

CRANO, WILLIAM D. What Do Infant Mental Tests Test? A Cross-lagged Panel Analysis of Selected Data from the Berkeley Growth Study. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 144-151. Psychology has long witnessed a search for behavioral predictors in infancy of later intellectual ability. This investigation challenged the causal relationship implicit in such a search and demonstrated the primacy of infant mental scale scores in the causation of later, more concrete physical behaviors. Secondary analysis of Berkeley Growth Study data through cross-lagged panel analyses revealed a relatively robust causal influence of mental scale behaviors operating within the 10-36-month age range. In conjunction with previous research, these findings clarify the nature of the infant mental test and explain the predictive superiority of the global mental scale over more concrete behavioral measures.