Multivariate Antecedents Of Structural Change In Development: A Simulation Of Cumulative Environmental Patterns

Abstract

Multivariate research has provided a conceptual and operational frame-work for the study of structural changes in behavior by focusing on the nature of changes in correlation and factor pattern matrices (e.g., theories of factor integration and differentiation). The purpose of the present simulation is to demonstrate how multivariate structural change and transitions can be construed to reflect multivariate environmental input patterns. These environmental input patterns show interindividual differences, accumulate with ontogeny, and exhibit varying degrees of continuity (environmental continuation, independence, inversion) during development. The simulation uses eight dependent variables as a behavioral universe, 30 subjects as a sample, two types of differential environmental input patterns (general environmental differences, behavior-specific environmental differences), and two developmental stages with multiple phases each. A linear and additive growth model is adopted to simulate the effect of environmental patterns on the rate of onto-genetic development and to generate developmental curves for each of the eight behaviors and each of the 30 subjects. Subsequently, both within- and between-stage comparisons of correlational and factor analytic outcome patterns are performed. The analyses result in the simulation of environmentally produced structural transformations in development (behavior-structure integration and behavior-structure differentiation) and their representation as various prototypic outcomes of factor invariance and change. A concluding argument is presented for a multivariate experimental and developmental approach to the study of behavioral transitions conceptualized as cumulative organism-environment interchanges.