Presenting pictures of faces side by side is a common paradigm to assess infants' attentional biases according to social categories, such as gender, race, and language. However, seeing static faces does not represent infants' typical experience of the social world, which involves people in motion and performing actions. Here, we assessed infants'…

The meaning, mechanism, and function of imitation in early infancy have been actively discussed since Meltzoff and Moore's (1977) report of facial and manual imitation by human neonates. Oostenbroek et al. (2016) claim to challenge the existence of early imitation and to counter all interpretations so far offered. Such claims, if true, would have…

Fragmented sleep is common in infancy. Although night awakening is known to decrease with age, in some infants night awakening is more persistent and continues into older ages. However, the influence of fragmented sleep on development is poorly known. In the present study, the longitudinal relationship between fragmented sleep and psychomotor…

The study of visual attention in infants has used presentation of single simple stimuli, multi-dimensional stimuli, and complex dynamic video presentations. There are both continuities and discontinuities in the findings on attention and attentiveness to stimulus complexity. A continuity is a pattern of looking that is found in the early part of…

This paper offers an overview of research on infants' early behavior toward televised images, followed by an account of the development of "representational competence" with video. Several aspects of representation are involved in young children's understanding and use of video. From a very young age, children form mental representations of the…

This study is the third of three investigating attentional preference in infants. In the second study (PS 003 071), infants gave initial attentional preference to familiar patterns of visual stimuli, and later switched their preference to the unfamiliar, novel stimuli. The purpose of the present study was to duplicate these results with improved…

Ability of 26 newborns to imitate facial expressions was examined. When infants observed emotional facial expressions, they did not show imitative matching of the modeled expressions. However, when tongue protrusion was modeled, infants did produce the modeled gesture. (PCB)

AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS STIMULUS CONDITIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE INFANT IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE AND THE IMPACT OF THESE STIMULI ON HIS ADAPTIVE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS WAS PRESENTED. INFANTS WERE OBSERVED IN FOUR CHILD-REARING ENVIRONMENTS--RESIDENTIAL, KIBBUTZ, SINGLE-CHILD FAMILY, AND MULTIPLE-CHILD FAMILY. UNDER THEORETICAL ORIENTATION, THESE…

Portions of this paper were presented at the 1967 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New York.

The human infant is now considered capable of active informational interaction with the environment. This study tested certain hypotheses concerning the nature of that interaction. These hypotheses, developed partly from Piaget's work, are (1) that repeated visual encounters with a stimulus pattern leads first to attentional preference for that…

Longitudinal data concerning fear responses in 30 boys and 30 girls observed from ages one month to 8 1/2 years suggest that in males--but not in females--a predisposition to a particular level of fearfulness is set by events that occurred before 6 months of age. (Author/MG)

Presents the procedures, results, and conclusions of two studies conducted to investigate the process of children separating from their mothers. The authors suggest that this kind of behavior has important biological and psychological consequences, among which are increased opportunities for learning and for adaptation to the environment, on the…

The booklet provides background information on the diagnosis and characteristics of autism. A chart portrays the signs and symptoms, followed by the definition of the syndrome by the National Society For Children and Adults with Autism. Associated features are noted along with information on age of onset, etiology, incidence and sex ratio,…

Provides data indicating that development occurs in cycles, with behavioral competencies appearing and developing and then disappearing only to reappear again in a more complex form at a later age. Data on conservation and auditory-manual coordination in infancy are used to support this theory. (ED)

Studies the communication of affect between depressed mothers and their infants and its relation to infant socioemotional and cognitive development through face-to-face interaction. Findings indicate that there are correspondences between the behavior of depressed mothers and their infants. (Author/BB)