Preterm birth poses a major public health challenge, with significant and heterogeneous developmental impacts. Latent profile analysis was applied to the National Institutes of Health Toolbox performance of 1891 healthy prematurely born children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study (970 boys, 921 girls; 10.00 ± 0.61 years;…

Infants watched an experimenter retrieve a stuffed animal from an opaque box and then return it. This happened twice, consistent with either 1 animal appearing on 2 occasions or 2 identical-looking animals each appearing once. The experimenter labeled each object appearance with a different novel label. After infants retrieved 1 object from the…

Quantifies behavioral periodicities or cycles during face-to-face interaction between three- and five-month-old term and preterm infants and their mothers. Compares the temporal organization of social interaction between term and preterm infants. Spectral and cross-spectral techniques showed the existence of periodicities. Differences were found…

Three experiments tested whether 12- to 24-month-old children showed systematic search, persistence, and/or end-screen search in the invisible-displacement task. A fourth study tested whether end-screen search resulted from seeing the experimenter move his hand through the series of screens. (RH)

Examined consistency in behavioral state organization for 30 fetuses and neonates. Assessed heart rate pattern and presence or absence of eye and gross body movements during sleep, finding quiet sleep (QS), active sleep (AS), and indeterminate states in nearly identical proportions. Duration of enclosed QS epochs provided only stable measure of…

This project hoped to specify the role of early, mother-infant separation in determining later maternal behavior. Clinically, the results suggest that such a separation should be avoided whenever possible and should be minimized when separation is unavoidable. (Authors)

The cry sounds of 12 well-nourished and 12 malnourished male infants were compared using behavioral and acoustic measures. (BRT)

Evaluated the extent to which infants' expressive modalities of face, gaze, voice, gesture, and posture form coherent affective configurations and whether these modalities are related to specific interactive contexts. Found four distinct affective configurations: social engagement, object engagement, passive withdrawal, and active protest. (MDM)

Two studies investigated whether 10- to 11-month-olds possess skills for parsing ongoing behavior along boundaries correlated with initiation and completion of intentions. Found that infants showed renewed interest in test videos in which motion paused in the midst of an actor's pursuit of intentions; suspended motion at intentional boundary…

Using the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure, a study examined the interrelations between dimensions of emotion and social interactive behaviors to explore the regulatory role of each in mother-infant interaction and how these roles may change in the second year. (HOD)

Examined continuity, stability, and change in behaviors reflecting infant reactivity and regulation. Subjects were 100 infants of 5 and 10 months old. Found that infant behaviors during frustrating situations showed both change and continuity, but the relationship between reactivity and regulation changed in that both factors became more…

Discusses observations of sets of infant twins, aged 6 to 24 months, as they interacted with one another and with an unfamiliar peer. Assesses quality of infant-mother attachment. Finds twins are more likely to react with one another than with a peer. Results are discussed in relation to early peer relationships and attachment. (Author/RWB)

Determined whether individual neonate characteristics could be detected and reliably measured in preterm infants. Results showed that preterms were highly self-consistent in their reactions to stimuli from neurobehavioral assessments. Highly reliable individual differences among infants were also seen. Individual consistencies and differences in…