Examines imitative interchanges of 18 mothers and their 10-to 14-month-old infants during two natural situations, bath time and free play. Infants' and mothers' replications of vocal, verbal, and motoric acts were observed. (NH)

In three experiments, a multiple habituation paradigm was used to examine the ability of 7- and 9-month-old prelinguistic infants to form a natural, basic-level object category. Findings constitute independent evidence for the existence of a linguistically relevant nonlinguistic category prior to the onset of word comprehension. (SED)

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)

Reports two experiments in which eight patients with organic memory disorders exhibited a pattern of search behavior that resembled mnemonmic precedence--the ability to retrieve an object at an initial location, but not at a new location. (HOD)

The intellectual development and behavior of U.S. citizen infants with undocumented alien parents were compared with infants of documented alien parents or Hispanic American parents. Demographic and environmental variables were equivalent for both groups. Infants of undocumented parents scored significantly lower on the Bayley mental and…

Thirty-five children who had participated in a study of mastery motivation at one year of age were reevaluated at 3.5 years. Findings differed for boys and girls and indicated that a wide range of behaviors in the cognitive-motivational domain must be examined to find developmental continuities. (Author/CB)

Mean scores of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development for 61 very low-birthweights, corrected for prematurity, were within the normal limits at both testing occasions. However, there was a significant decrease in mental development scores from one to two years of age. (Author/CL)

Studied were the behavioral characteristics of 60 methadone addicted infants and 53 nonaddicted infants during the first year of life (neonatal period, and at 3, 6, and 12 months of age). (PT)

This science brief reports on a study that identified the effects of different experiences on critical periods of learning during early brain development. The study found that the presence of corticosterone in a part of the brain called the amygdala determined whether a normally painful experience was learned as an attractive or fearful event.…

Designed for use in in the home and in professional child-care settings, this program presents developmentally appropriate activities to support development of infants from 1 to 2 years of age. Each of the six 2-month long units contains 24 sets of activities call Activity Plans, with the suggestion to use three activity plans per week. Each unit…

Based on studies on Guatemalan children, presents data that absolute retardation in the time of emergence of universal cognitive competences during infancy is not predictive of comparable deficits for memory, perceptual analysis, and inference during preadolescence; retardation seems to be partially reversible and cognitive development in the…

Results are discussed in terms of cognitive growth, the psychoanalytic notion of ambivalence, the role of stimulus context in eliciting laughter or fear, and a possible adaptive, stimulus-maintaining function of laughter. (Authors)

Compares the ages at which infants living under different conditions in two orphanges in Athens, Greece achieve levels of object construction and imitation, both verbal and gestural. Home-reared infants of the same age range were also examined using two of the Uzgiris-Hunt Ordinal Scales of Infant Psychological Development. (WY)

Studies the effects of mothers' presence and absence on two infants from birth to two years. (AJ)