A hierarchical progression in infants' ability to use surface features, such as color, as a basis for object individuation in the first year has been well established (Tremoulet, Leslie, & Hall, 2000; Wilcox, 1999). There is evidence, however, that infants' sensitivity to surface features can be increased through multisensory (i.e.,…

In 3 experiments, a total of 151 monolingual and bilingual 6-year-old children performed similarly on measures of language and cognitive ability; however, bilinguals solved the global-local and trail-making tasks more rapidly than monolinguals. This bilingual advantage was found not only for the traditionally demanding conditions (incongruent…

The ability to individuate objects is one of our most fundamental cognitive capacities. Recent research has revealed that when objects vary in color or luminance alone, infants fail to individuate those objects until 11.5 months. However, color and luminance frequently covary in the natural environment, thus providing a more salient and reliable…

Disorganized attachment in infancy is known to predict a wide range of maladaptive outcomes, but its origins are poorly understood. Parental lack of resolution concerning loss or trauma has been proposed to result in atypical parenting behaviors, which in turn have a disorganizing effect on the parent-child relationship. The authors review the…

Examined the development of pattern recognition in infant pigtailed macaques using the familiarization novelty technique. Results indicate that by at least 200 days postconception subjects show a consistently reliable visual response to novelty. (Author/RH)

Reports three experiments which investigated the discrimination of simple visual arrangements by three-month-old infants. An operant high-amplitude sucking technique was used in a stimulus familiarization-novelty paradigm. (JMB)

Reply by Jerome Kagan to a recent article by Block, Gjerde, and Block (1986) which questions the validity of the construct of reflection-impulsivity. Kagan alleges flaws in the logic of the authors' (Block, Gjerde, Block) position and in the inferences drawn from their data. (Author/RWB)

Responds to the arguments and evidence adduced by Kagan (1987) in his reply to the Block, Gjerde, and Block (1986) study questioning the validity of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) as a measure of "reflection-impulsivity." (Author)

Three experiments examined whether the perception and retention of feature relations, thought to be critical for object recognition in adults, are evident in early infancy. Three month olds' 24-hour retention was disrupted when features of a 6-item mobile were recombined, indicating that they not only encode feature relations but also remember…

Infants were tested at 5, 8, and 13 months of age for numerosity perception. Subjects observed displayed figures on a screen moving at constant speed with irregular trajectories and occasional occlusions. Results demonstrated that discrimination of units, and not of characteristic patterns, underlies numerosity perception. (BC)

Four experiments examined how perception affects delayed recognition, visual pop out, and memory reactivation (priming) in six month olds. Infants discriminated cues differing in spatial arrangement or number of primitive perceptual units (textons) in a delayed recognition task and exhibited adultlike visual pop-out effects in a priming task. (MDM)

Measured the pattern goodness effect at visual encoding stages and short term memory stages in observers aged 6 to 22 years using a speeded sequential same-different paradigm. Found goodness effects were larger in short term memory for all subjects, memory effects decreased with age, and encoding effects remained constant. (SKC)

A sequential-touching task was used to investigate whether 14-month-old infants can rapidly change how they categorize a set of objects, recognizing new groupings of objects they had previously categorized in a different way. When presented with a collection of objects that could be categorized by shape (balls vs. blocks) or material (soft vs.…

Study looks at pigtailed macaque in the context of visual recognition problems adapted from a standardized test developed for use with human infants. Results demonstrate that the low-risk group easily differentiated novel from previously seen targets; the high-risk group gave no evidence of recognition. (Author/RWB)

Studies the effects of distinctive features on incomplete picture recognition for three to four year olds, five to six year olds, and adults. (Author/SS)