Four experiments examined 8-month-olds' ability to reason about collections of objects. Findings suggested that infants' expectations about object behavior do not automatically apply to any and all portions of matter within the visual field. The behavior of an entity and infants' prior experience played roles in determining whether infants will…

Recorded reaching and looking preferences and movement kinematics among 5- to 15-month-olds divided into 3 age groups. Found that 5- to 12-month-olds preferred looking first at a large object; 8.5- to 12-month-olds showed preference for reaching to smaller (graspable) objects. Kinematic measures suggested that onset of object-oriented action…

Investigated 4- and 7-month-olds' perception of transparency, using computer-generated achromatic or color displays depicting a semitransparent box occluding the center of a rod. Found that 4-month-olds indicated perception of transparency in color but not in achromatic displays. Seven-month-olds showed some evidence of transparency perception in…

Examined the nature of numerical knowledge in 5-month-olds to inform the debate whether numerical abilities result from capacities dedicated to numerical cognition or to more general perceptual capacities. Found that 5-month-olds could determine the number of collective entities, moving groups of items, when non-numerical perceptual factors such…

Two studies assessed the gaze following of 12-, 14-, and 18-month-olds. Findings indicated that infants at all ages looked at the adult's target more when the adult turned to the target with open eyes than when the adult turned with closed eyes. Additional evidence suggested that infants were not simply responding to adult head turning, but were…

Two experiments used Visual Expectations Procedure to investigate development of expectations in infants up to 12 months old. Reaction time improved and the percentage of anticipations increased between 6 and 9 months using an alternation pattern or a complex pivot pattern, and between 4 and 8 months when using a left-right alternation or a…

Adults' ability to track a moving target was examined in two experiments in order to compare their performance with that of very young infants. Results indicated that (1) adults'"overshoot" errors resembled those reported for young infants; and (2) adults had problems tracking a moving target which unexpectedly changed direction. (Author/DB)