Joseph J. Campos, Ph.D.

Research Biography

University Positions:
Professor of Psychology

Role in IHD:
Director, 1994-1996
Member, 1994-Present

Current Work:
My research focuses on two major issues; one deals with developmental transitions in infancy, and the second on emotional development. My work on developmental transitions centers on the consequences of motoric activity for psychological development. When infants begin to crawl, they undergo a remarkable set of advances in spatial cognitive, perceptual, emotional, and social functioning. The studies I am now conducting address whether the onset of self-produced locomotion is a cause, or instead a maturational antecedent, of these changes. The issue of causality is being addressed by using an experimental design and by randomly assigning infants to conditions in which the infant can control his or her own movement, or move about passively in an electric “go-cart.” After active or passive movement experience, infants are compared on performance in a variety of cognitive and perceptual tests.I am conducting a related series of investigations in Beijing, China, where for ecological and cultural reasons infants are delayed in crawling onset by 3.5 months relative to Western norms. The study in China addresses the role of the age of onset of locomotion, the duration of locomotor experience, and their interaction, on psychological development. I have also been conducting investigations on the role of other motoric developments as organizers of psychological transitions. These studies involve reaching and upright locomotion, both of which, like crawling, prove to be important antecedents of psychological transitions. My studies on emotional development address the question of the universality of patterning of facial and vocal expressions of emotion in infancy. These studies compares the expressions of infants in Japan, China, and the U.S. in response to elicitors of fear, anger, sadness, surprise, and other emotions.

JOSEPH CAMPOS Research Biography, January, 2000