RELATION BETWEEN PHYSICAL GROWTH AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING IN INFANTS BORN IN INDIA

The relation between physical growth and cognitive development in infa nts growing up in India was examined in this study. Subjects were 183 5-12-month-olds. Weight and length, two anthropometric measures common ly used to index nutritional status in developing countries, related t o infant measures of visual recognition memory and tactual-visual cros s-modal transfer. Underweight infants performed relatively poorly on b oth cognitive measures and failed to show the clear age-related improv ements in speed of processing found among the heavier infants. Weight and length correlated with both measures of infant cognition, r = .25 to r = .45, as did, to a lesser degree, head circumference. Although b irthweight, previous illness, and parental education were also related to development, the relations between infant growth and cognition rem ained significant even after these variables were statistically contro lled.