Exposure to communicative gestures, through their parents' use of gestures, is associated with infants' language development. However, the mechanisms supporting this link are not fully understood. In adults, sensorimotor brain activity occurs while processing communicative stimuli, including both spoken language and gestures. Using…

An ability to perceive tactile and visual stimuli in a common spatial frame of reference is a crucial ingredient in forming a representation of one's own body and the interface between bodily and external space. In this study, the authors investigated young infants' abilities to perceive colocation between tactile and visual stimuli presented on…

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the…

Results of a study of 10- and 11- month-old infants support Piaget's hypothesis that practical, action-based knowledge during infancy is involved in achievement of spatial understanding and that the experience of self-initiated locomotion contributes to spatial development. (Author/NH)

Evaluated psychological mechanisms underlying imitation of facial actions in 40 newborn infants. Results showed imitation of head movement and a tongue-protrusion gesture. Subjects imitated from memory after displays had stopped. (RJC)

Studies the extent to which psychometric and Piagetian scales correlate during infancy and also explores the nomological networks of these scales and the degree to which their networks are similar. (LLK)

Four experiments investigated the role of geometric path type in infants' ability to make spatial inferences about the location of a hidden object after the infants had been moved. In all but the fourth experiment, infants were able to retrieve the objects unless objects were located behind the infants. (SKC)

Examined eight-month-olds' ability to remember the location of a hidden object, using a nonsearch task. Results suggested that the infants remembered the object's location, and were surprised when it had been moved. (SKC)

Tested the hypothesis that some attempts to reduce the performance demands of concrete Piagetian operational tasks may have allowed children to solve those tasks with preoperational functions. Administered two previously used versions of the transitivity task for length and weight to 120 children six- to nine-years-old. The second version was…

Investigates the effects of variable-practice versus constant-practice on the learning of novel motor schemata in 36 children ranging in age from two years one month to four years. (Author/SS)

Presents a mathematical model of the development of reaching behavior in infants, along with the results of two experiments that showed that infant movements could be decomposed into the underlying submovements using a principled method; and the angular error in infant reaches matches the form and magnitude of error assumed by the model. (MDM)

Used a set of six measures to analyze both the products and process of spatial grouping in 40 children between the ages of 18 and 42 months. Results confirmed and elaborated on previously established developmental findings for each measure. (SKC)

Investigated preschoolers' understanding of two distance principles: the direct-indirect and the same-plus principle. Children did better on tasks relevant to the principles than on principle-irrelevant tasks. Concluded that even young children conceive of distance as fixed intervals. (SKC)

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that the optimum precision level of knowledge of results for motor learning varies as a direct function of age. Subjects were first, third, fifth and ninth graders. (CM)

In a combined verbal and motor paired-associate task, children in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade learned nonsense names and spatial responses for three random shapes. Results showed evidence for mediation at all three age levels and increased mediational effects with age. (Author/JMB)