RELATIONSHIP OF EARLY INFANT STATE MEASURES TO BEHAVIOR OVER THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE IN THE TUFTED CAPUCHIN MONKEY (CEBUS-APELLA)

Data on activity states were collected from 29 group-housed capuchin m onkey (Cebus apella) infants for 3 h each week from birth to 11 weeks of age. The amounts of time spent in sleeping/drowsy, alert-quiet, and alert-active states were measured in these subjects. Videotaped obser vations of these infants were recorded 3 times/week in the home cage o ver the first year of life and were scored for a number of social and exploratory behaviors. The extent to which early infant activity state scores predicted later behavior in the home cage was examined. Infant state measures correlated significantly with home cage behavior durin g months 2-6 in that infants that had been more active in early infanc y spent more time alone, with other animals, and in exploration and pl ay and less time with mothers than did quieter infants. Early state me asures were less successful in predicting home cage scores beyond 8 mo nths of age, whereas differences in behavior attributable to housing v ariables became more salient in the latter part of the first year. The re was also a negative correlation between mother and infant activity in months 2 and 3, in that more sedentary mothers tended to have more active infants. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.dagger.