Clarifies several issues in response to recent criticisms of habituation and related novelty-preference techniques used in studies of infant memory. (RH)

Three studies focused on: (1) the definition of structure in a specific domain of knowledge; and (2) the relationship between the ways in which knowledge is structured and the ways in which it is used. Evidence suggested that the knowledge of expert children is structured hierarchically into well-defined families and family-groups. (RH)

Investigates, in a group of 48 children ages three to five years of age who were judged either high- or low-exploratory, the effects of (1) the presence of other children high and low in their predisposition to explore and (2) different types of novel objects. (MP)

Critically evaluates habituation and related models for studying infant memory, focusing on methodological and substantive limitations which restrict the derivation of information from them. The essay considers existing research on the development of object permanence as an alternative source of information about infant memory. (Author/DB)

The purpose of this paper is to set out a descriptive model in which the relative dominance of a stimulus dimension is related to the form of attention it receives. (Author/DB)

Two studies evaluate several ecological conditions under which early social relations might be established and changed, paying particular attention to the relative novelty of children's toys. Both studies involved two adults with individual preschool children for several successive play sessions. (Author/SB)

Two experiments were conducted in order to determine whether there are differences between well and malnourished infants in the extent to which they prefer novel stimuli. (MP)

Examines imitation of motor, vocal, and verbal behaviors by infants 10 to 16 months old. The imitation battery consisted of 21 behaviors in four motor and two vocal categories. The familiarity or novelty of individual behaviors was assessed through maternal interviews. Results are discussed in terms of Uzgaris' (1981) conceptualization of two…

Reports three experiments which investigate: whether familiar objects have standard graphic orientations (Experiment 1); the relationship between use of object orientations and more conventional methods in depicting familiar objects in motion (Experiment 2); and whether orientations are used differently in novel objects whose only defining feature…

Measures the indirect effect a home video system has on children's leisure activities, school work, and peer contacts. Concludes that owning a video game does not greatly alter a child's activities. (HOD)

Explored relation between infants' early spontaneous imitation of novel and familiar words and subsequent lexicons in longitudinal sample between 13 and 21 months. Found marked contrasts in quantity and proportions of nouns between reported and observed lexicons. When earlier vocabulary levels were controlled, infants' early replication of novel…

Examined cortisol and behavioral reactions of 36-month olds in an unfamiliar playgroup. Found that, when compared to at-home levels, cortisol levels were lower when children were receiving adult support and higher for one-third of children when interacting with peers alone, and that children showing adrenocortical arousal before the challenging…