Children (n=36), originally tested for visual novelty preferences at age seven months and intelligence estimates at age three, were tested for intellectual functioning and for visual recognition performance at age five. Results indicate that novelty preferences were more highly related to later intelligence quotients than to later recognition…

Focuses on environmental influences on variations in infants' exploratory behavior, the stability of these differences, and the relation between differences in exploratory play and later cognitive development. (AS)

Noting that infants should be encouraged to be physically active from the beginning of life to enhance physical and cognitive development, this statement provides teachers, parents, caregivers, and health care professionals with guidelines that address the kinds of activities, the environment, and the individuals responsible for facilitating very…

The number of very young children entering center-based child care programs is growing. Now, more than ever, it is important for caregivers to understand the impact they have on the healthy development of the children in their care. "Emotional Connections" translates new research on cognitive, social, and emotional development in the early years…

From a symposium on Cross-Cultural Studies of Mother-Infant Interaction at the Biennial Meeting for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1971. (MB)

Indicates that 18- to 20-month-old infants can detect the correspondence between auditorially and visually perceived speech; that is, they manifest some of the components related to lip-reading phenomena in adults. This demonstration of the bimodal perception of speech in infancy has important implications for social, cognitive, and linguistic…

Four questions are discussed that deal with aspects of neurological, affective, and cognitive development of infants and have implications for educational programs. (Author/SB)

Used Visual Expectation Paradigm to describe information processing changes and individual differences during first year of life. Found regular age changes in mean reaction time and variability but not in minimum reaction time, suggesting that growth rate of sensory-detection information is constant during first year but age changes occur in level…

Speculates on underlying processes for the reaction time variance and age differences in anticipation latency using the Visual Expectation Paradigm. Discusses the dichotomization of reactive and anticipatory behavior, limitations of longitudinal designs, drawbacks in using standard procedures and materials, and inferences that can be made…

Explores the mathematical abilities of human infants compared with various species of animals. Studies indicate that human infants enter the world capable of doing simple mathematical operations. Nonhuman animals can discriminate among sets of objects based on the number of items in each set. Further studies may pinpoint the age at which children…

The literature on the effects of congenital blindness on infants' development of motor functions and concepts of object permanence is reviewed. The article questions the idea that infants must first develop an object concept before sound clues alone will elicit reaching. Possible interventions to redress the effects of congenital blindness on…

Infants' habituation and mothers' encouragement of attention were assessed at 5 months. Toddlers' language comprehension, language production, and pretense play, and mothers' encouragement of attention, were assessed at 13 months. Examined the contributions of infant habituation and maternal stimulation to toddlers' cognitive abilities. (PCB)

Reviews "The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition" (S. Carey and R. Gelman, editors), a collection of essays that present a hard-scientific vision of cognitive development. Examines the arguments this work articulates and then determines the place it occupies in the analysis of the state of developmental psychology as presented in…

Attempts to determine whether children can use social-pragmatic cues to determine "what kind" of referent, object, or action an adult intends to indicate with a novel word. Doubts that children assume that a novel word refers to whatever nameless object is present. Suggests that lexical acquisition rests fundamentally on children's…

Examines whether knowledge of functional properties of a referent for a new name influences children's first guesses about whether that name refers to an object or a substance. Suggests that children do not rely on a single source of information, but rather draw on various kind of information, including perceptual characteristics of the entities…