Tested infants' understandings of self and mother in the domains of agency and featural knowledge. Four developmentally sequential tasks were administered to infants. It was hypothesized that infants would pass the mother versions of feature tasks before the self versions, and would pass the self versions of agency tasks before the mother…

The purpose of this research was to examine 18- to 30-month-old children's use of scripts for representing common events. A script is defined as a model that specifies the roles and props appropriate to an event and identifies a sequence of acts for achieving the goal defined by the event. Two aspects of script knowledge were investigated: (1) the…

Examined the development of pattern recognition in infant pigtailed macaques using the familiarization novelty technique. Results indicate that by at least 200 days postconception subjects show a consistently reliable visual response to novelty. (Author/RH)

The repeated psychological assessment of 41 high-risk infants during the first 2 years of life using the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development was investigated. Analyses indicated that the infants' cognitive functioning remained fairly stable over the 2 years, particularly from age 6 months on. (Author/JDD)

A sample of 44 infants of five months of age showed a significant reaching preference for the apparently nearer region of a computer-generated display. This indicated that the infants were sensitive to boundary flow information for depth at an edge. (RH)

Findings indicate that infants can detect regularity in spatiotemporal series; will develop expectancies for events in the series; and will act on the basis of those expectancies even when their actions have no effect on the stimulus events. (PCB)

Delay/response inhibition in the presence of an attractive stimulus and compliance with maternal directives in a clean-up task were observed among subjects 18, 24, and 30 months of age. Results suggested (1) achievement of self-control is a major developmental accomplishment, and (2) individual differences in self-control emerge and are…

Investigates the relationship between self-recognition and self-evaluative emotions in two studies on 27 children aged 9-24 months and 44 children aged 22 months. The results of both studies indicate that embarrassment but not wariness was related to self-recognition. (RJC)

Three experiments test object permanenece in 3 1/2- and 4 1/2-month-old infants, and use an impossible-possible-habituation event format. The 4 1/2-month-olds, and the 3 1/2-month-olds who were fast habituators, look reliably longer at the impossible than at the possible event. Results seriously question Piaget's (1954) claims regarding the age at…

Changes in children's categorization behavior between 15 and 21 months of age and the relation of these changes to developments in language, object permanence, and means-end understanding are reported. (PCB)

Results of a study involving 30 infants of 14, 20, or 26 weeks confirm the existence of distinct developmental phases of attention during the visual preference procedure. Findings suggest a refinement of the use of fixation duration as the major dependent variable in the procedure. (RH)

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)

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)

Examines the effects of an extra five minutes of interaction on the psychomotor and mental development of Iranian infant orphans largely deprived of opportunities to interact with caretakers and peers. Daily intervention continued for six weeks; effects were assessed after a 6-month interval. (RH)