Examines discrimination of geometric shapes by three-month-old infants who were presented with geometric stimuli moving laterally at two different velocities. Finds that subjects discriminate between geometric forms at velocities that, according to previous findings, might interfere with shape discrimination. Discusses the possible interactive…

The purpose of present experiments with subjects approximately three, five, and seven years of age was to provide additional evidence for the obviousness of the generative transmission principle and to provide initial evidence for the secondary principles of absence and facility. Empirical support was found for each of these selection principles,…

In the first of two tasks, 5- and 11-year-olds recalled the array location of social photographs of an unfamiliar adult expressing anger, disgust, fear, joy, and shame. In the second task, subjects were tested for their incidental recall of those features which were not previously isolated. Results indicated a mouth-eyes-nose hierarchy for…

Reviews Greenough, Black, and Wallace's (1987) conceptual framework for understanding the effects of early experience and sensitive periods on development, and illustrates the applicability of their model with recent data on the consequences for animals and human infants of the acquistion of self-produced locomotion. (BN)

Describes two experiments that assessed young children's understanding of the characteristic uncertainty in the physical nature of random phenomena as well as the unpredictability of outcomes. (HOD)

The short-term reliability and long-term stability of visual habituation and dishabituation in infancy were assessed in a sample of 186 infants from four age groups (3-, 4-, 7- and 9-month-olds) seen for two within-age sessions, and in a sample of 69 infants seen longitudinally at 3, 4, 7, and 9 months of age. (Author/BN)

Tests the distinction between inferring new categories on the basis of property information (predicted to be difficult) and inferring new properties on the basis of category information (predicted to be easier) among 57 preschool children. (HOD)

Investigates the perceptual basis of metaphor by asking 5-, 7-, and 10-year-old children and adults to pair and discuss films of natural objects, both stationary and moving. Concludes that motion information makes metaphoric similarity relatively easy to perceive and influences the form of descriptive metaphors. (Author/CB)

Evaluates models of infant visual preferences with predictions based on the physical attributes of visual patterns using pairs of schematic faces and abstract patterns identical except for contrast reversals. Results suggest that a fundamental change in the determinants of visual preference occurs postnatally between 6 and 12 weeks. (Author/RWB)

A series of six experiments compares young children's competence in attributing absence of knowledge (ignorance) to their competence in attributing a false belief to the other. (HOD)

Examines developmental change in 4- 7- and 10-month-old infants' perceptions of correlations among attributes to determine whether relational information plays a role in abilities ranging from the perception and recognition of a simple pattern to the formation of a category. (HOD)

Examines the ability to differentiate appearance-reality and Level Two perspective-taking in tactile modality among a total of 92 children aged two-four years in three studies. The results indicate that three-year-olds find tactile appearance-reality and Level Two perspective-taking tasks easier than visual ones. (RJC)

Tests four hypotheses to separate the effect of schemes from drawing-specific influences on young children's drawings and examines whether copies and anticipatory drawings are influenced by schemes in the same manner. (HOD)

Compares estimates of monocular visual resolution of children 6- to 36-months of age with three psychophysical procedures: the Probabilistic Estimation by Sequential Testing (PEST), a modification of the PEST procedure, and the method-of-constant stimuli. (HOD)

Describes preschool children's ability to simultaneously perceive multiple aspects of an object in two experiments during which three- to five-year-olds were asked to describe part/whole pictures. (HOD)