This volume brings together leading authorities from multiple disciplines to examine the relationship between brain development and behavior in typically developing children. Presented are innovative cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that shed light on brain-behavior connections in infancy and toddlerhood through adolescence. Chapters…

Six-month and 12-month-old infants were studied for wariness (hesitancy to approach new and incongruous stimuli). Both age groups could perceive differences in stimuli, but only the older infants displayed wariness. (DP)

Infants 21- to 25-weeks-old devoted more visual fixation to novel than familiar stimuli on immediate and delayed recognition tests. The experiments confirm the existence of long-term recognition memory for pictorial stimuli in the early months of life. (DP)

Examined the function and effectiveness of certain behaviors in regulating negative arousal in infants who participated in an arm restraint procedure at age 5 months and a toy removal task at age 10 months. Results showed that comforting behaviors were preferred at both 5 and 10 months of age. (MDM)

Gottlieb used naturalistic observations of normally occurring events in the life history of individuals for the purpose of discovering the role of experience in the development of species-typical behaviors. His research revealed the impact of self-generated experiences (particularly those experiences that were self-stimulated) in the establishment…

Two studies found infants' scores on the Range of State Cluster of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale with Kansas Supplements to correlate significantly with visual discrimination performance at three months of age. The correlation with behavioral state organization contradicted the prediction that orientation scores would predict visual…

During paroxysms of colic, infants are hypertonic or neurolabile, and appear to be in acute, abdominal pain. The infant lets out a high-pitched cry which soon reaches a screaming level, and which is coupled with facial grimacing. The infant is difficult to console, and may resist attempts to sooth it. Between spells, these infants cry normally and…

Reports on a strategy of continuous measurement of the frequency of the same infant behavior over time, which was applied to measuring infant development in the prone position, namely, chin lifting, chest lifting, and a creeping response. (BD/BR)

Research on perceptual and cognitive capacities of the newborn has revealed that state variables typically interfere with or override the neonate's attentional and stimulus processing tendencies. This finding argues for the power of early state variables as behavioral determinants and, further, that neonatal state measures might provide good…

Quantitatively describes the gait development of a group of African children to determine how pattern changes would relate to growth and maturation. A total of 65 children from the Gusii tribe of southwestern Kenya, ranging in age from 13 to 69 months, were selected for study. (Author/RH)

Investigates the developmental sequence of learning to transform objects into agents and recipients of action in early symbolic play. Each of 48 children (from 14 to 25 months old) demonstrated initiative pretending after an adult modeled agent and recipient substitutions in pretending to talk on the telephone. (Author/CB)

The early psychomotor development (DQ) of 29 term small-for-gestational-age Brazilian infants was shown to be more dependent on postnatal growth than the DQ of 51 term appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. (Author/RH)

Assessed sleep disorders in 265 visually impaired and 67 non-disabled 10- to 72-month olds. Found that infants with visual impairments had more difficulties in falling asleep and in sleeping through the night than nonhandicapped children. Also found a relationship between sleep disorders and the regularity of children's daily routine and…

Mothers viewed videotapes of interaction with their 20 full-term healthy, 20 preterm healthy, and 20 preterm sick infants between 11 and 26 weeks of age. Relationships between infant gazing, laughing, and fussing and maternal interpretation of emotional state, attention preference, attention curiosity, and physical needs were analyzed. (Author/SW)

Comments on Thelen and Ulrich's monograph in this issue. Examines theoretical and empirical sections and findings, concluding that the authors have taken a major step forward by introducing the dynamic systems perspective to the study of behavioral coordination in infants, thus opening the way for experimental investigation of phenomena that could…