A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. III. Six-month-old babies.

Ten clinically normal 6-month-old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was simultaneously videotaperecorded and assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations observers were permitted to see the babies for 13 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec formed a prestimulus observation period and the following 8 sec possibly contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to not (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 modest for prestimulus activity and confidence in response, and fair to good for movement item. The outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier work on neonates and 6-week infants, although it did suggest a small loss of information with the videorecording of 6-month infants.