The behavior of newborns is ambiguous. Cultural models-representations shared by members of a community-provide new parents and others with a cognitive and motivational structure to understand them. This study asks members of several cultural groups (total n = 100) to judge the "similarity" of behavioral items in the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Data were obtained from NBAS experts, mothers, and undergraduates in Massachusetts, and mothers and high-school students in rural Kenya. Multidimensional scaling of their judgments reveals that NBAS experts were especially attentive to a dimension of State Control-exactly as the scale emphasizes. Kenyan mothers focused on a dimension of motor responsiveness-in accord with their concern and practices regarding motor development, and the Massachusetts mothers organized their judgments around cognitive competence-abilities emphasized in contemporary discussions of early development. The US students appear to be more similar to US mothers than did the Kenya students to the Kenyan mothers. Each adult group's representation reflects their cultural values and goals, and helps them understand the newborn child in local terms.

中文翻译：

---

文化和新生儿行为的感知组织：肯尼亚和美国的比较研究

新生儿的行为模棱两可。文化模型（由社区成员共享的表示）为新父母和其他父母提供了认知和动机结构来理解他们。这项研究要求几个文化群体（总计n = 100）的成员在新生儿行为评估量表（NBAS）中判断行为项目的“相似性”。数据来自马萨诸塞州的NBAS专家，母亲和本科生，以及肯尼亚农村的母亲和高中生。他们的判断的多维标度显示，NBAS专家尤其关注状态控制的维度，正如该标度所强调的那样。肯尼亚母亲注重运动反应的维度-符合他们对运动发展的关注和做法，马萨诸塞州的母亲们围绕认知能力进行了判断，这些能力在当代关于早期发展的讨论中得到了强调。与肯尼亚学生相比，美国学生似乎与美国母亲更为相似。每个成年人群体的代表都反映了他们的文化价值观和目标，并帮助他们以当地的语言理解新生婴儿。