Caretaker-infant interaction within the first year of life was studied in a group of 10 Wolof infants. The pattern of caretaker-infant interaction was more strongly related to age of infant than any other variable investigated. The often-found result that African infants show precocious development within the first year was confirmed for the…

Maintains that Muller and Overton (1998) challenge the current Zeitgeist regarding infant cognitive development. Suggests that researchers reconsider infants as developing actors in a meaningful environment, not as born philosophers. Notes the need to explore processes underlying key transitions in infancy and the relation between action and…

Comments on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Argues that Bradley reduced Darwin to a mere rhetorician, exaggerated Erasmus Darwin's influence, and diminished the importance of intertextual links in Darwin's own previous writings. Disagrees that Darwin's primary motive was rhetorical and suggests…

Comments sympathetically on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Draws from Bradley to provide a sketch of the politics of child development as a human enterprise, and questions the view of developmental psychology as a positivistic, value-free field. (TM)

Responds to commentaries by Keegan and Gruber on Bradley's article in this issue, refuting charges of oversimplification of Darwin's ideas. States that the Darwin example undermines the notion that developmental psychology is insulated from cultural preoccupations, arguing that Darwin is important for introducing a new psychological poetic.…

Notes that Charles Darwin's observations on babies are not examples of data collected to test hypotheses. Draws from Bakhtin to argue that they extend and vary existing modes of discourse, primarily debates about the place of instinct in language acquisition, traceable to his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. Concludes that the significance of Darwin's…

Conducted a textual analysis of Darwin's diary version of his observations of his oldest child and the published paper based on these observations to compare the degree to which Darwin identified himself in the two as detached observer or as embodied participant. Found that the embodied, relational vision evident in the diary version was absent…

Identifies three categories of baby diaries--scientific, educational, and domestic--prevalent from the late 18th to late 19th century in Western Europe and the United States. Discusses the diarists and recurring themes in the diaries, such as the nature of instinctive behaviors and recapitulationism. Explores contemporary uses of the diary method.…

Comments on the article by Wallace and others in this issue. Discusses the history of diaries and diarists in child psychology and comments on modern diary studies. Examines some of the benefits and challenges of using diaries as a research method and suggests that old and new diary studies can contribute to the progress of contemporary…

Comments on the article by Wallace and others in this issue. Suggests that baby diarists kept records to clarify their own thinking rather than to contribute to a body of knowledge. Although noting the value of baby diaries, proposes a revival of similar methods that would enable researchers to address some of the fundamental issues in child…