Premium
Tipping points? Curvilinear associations between activity level and mental development in toddlers
Author(s) -
Flom Megan,
Cohen Madeleine,
Saudino Kimberly J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.12670
Subject(s) - psychology , normative , developmental psychology , cognition , normative model of decision making , cognitive psychology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience
Background The Theory of Optimal Stimulation (Zentall & Zentall, Psychological Bulletin , 94, 1983, 446) posits that the relation between activity level ( AL ) and cognitive performance follows an inverted U shape where midrange AL predicts better cognitive performance than AL at the extremes. Methods We explored this by fitting linear and quadratic models predicting mental development from AL assessed via multiple methods (parent ratings, observations, and actigraphs) and across multiple situations (laboratory play, laboratory test, home) in over 600 twins (2‐ and 3‐year olds). Results Only observed AL in the laboratory was curvilinearly related to mental development scores. Results replicated across situations, age, and twin samples, providing strong support for the optimal stimulation model for this measure of AL in early childhood. Conclusions Different measures of AL provide different information. Observations of AL which include both qualitative and quantitative aspects of AL within structured situations are able to capture beneficial aspects of normative AL as well as detriments of both low and high AL .