Dr Bernstein Kept a Thorough Record of Her Child's Behavior

Essay

Dr. Bernstein kept a thorough record of her child's behavior and progress throughout the first year of life, with careful attention to the sounds and noises her baby made that seemed to lead up to later language usage. She also kept notes on how her own behavior affected her baby's vocalizing, in an attempt to learn how parent-child interactions influence language development. Later, in developing her own theory, she and her colleagues replicated the project on several dozen other children by observing them weekly throughout their first year of life. (a) What research methods were employed? What type of comparison was used? (b) Why was the research conducted on children other than Dr. Bernstein's? (c) If Dr. Bernstein observed that whenever she talked to her baby, the baby's rate of vocalizing increased, would this mean that her behavior "caused" the baby's? Why or why not?