Task involvement and cardiac response in young children

Abstract

Of a group of 60 3-year-old children, the 10 with consistently high and stable heart rates across a variety of cognitive procedures, in contrast to 11 children with consistently low and variable heart rates, were described by their mothers as motivated for intellectual mastery and obedient toward them, and these children behaved in accord with these descriptions on selected cognitive tests and during observations at home. It is suggested that heart rate reactions in testing situations might prove helpful when included as part of a larger set of procedures designed to evaluate a young child's motivational involvement in psychological tasks.