ERIC Number: EJ934421
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-May
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Developmental and Cross-Situational Stability in Infant Pigtailed Macaque Temperament
Sussman, Adrienne; Ha, James
Developmental Psychology, v47 n3 p781-791 May 2011
We assessed developmental stability and context generalizability of temperament in pigtailed macaques ("Macaca nemestrina") from the University of Washington Infant Primate Research Lab. A principal components analysis condensed 6 behavioral measures into 2 components, interpreted as reactivity and boldness. Changes in these measures over the 1st 10 months of development showed a trend toward calmer and bolder behavior with age, with significant individual variation in the pattern of change. Boldness showed a quadratic pattern of change, whereas reactivity decreased linearly. We also studied the relationship between temperament and response to a novelty probe. The magnitude of the response to the novelty probe decreased slightly over time, and boldness and reactivity in a familiar setting did not predict these changes in response to novelty. In a 2nd principal components analysis, reactivity to novelty represented a distinct aspect of temperament. Our results demonstrate developmental changes and context dependency in macaque behavior. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Animals, Personality Traits, Developmental Stages, Context Effect, Behavior Change, Age Differences, Responses, Correlation, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension), Prediction, Developmental Psychology, Generalization
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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