Studied 2-year olds' understanding of pretense expressions of independent agency in scenarios in which a doll acted as the agent of a series of pretend events. Found no gender differences in the doll's imaginary intentions, but older toddlers performed reliably better than younger. Episodes requiring enacting conclusions to events that began with…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether a general perceptual model developed by Vitz and Todd (1971), capable of dealing with multiple determinants of attending, is useful for understanding infant attending. The model, previously used in research with adults, assumes that perception can be represented as a stochastic sampling…

Two parental questionnaires were developed for measurement of temperament in one- and two-year old children in Sweden. (MP)

Parental sex-typed perceptions of infants at two different ages were examined in this study. Twenty-nine primiparous couples were recruited from a local hospital where they had been participating in various childbirth and child-care education programs. Sixteen were parents of boys, and 13 were parents of girls. First when their children were 5 to…

A total of 20 neonates were presented with mild intensity blue or blue-green light during presentation of habituation and dishabituation stimuli. Orienting and defensive responses were measured by monitoring heart rate deceleration. (GO)

In this study, an attempt was made to determine whether psychophysiological differences existed between 20 prematurely born and 20 full-term infants in their responsiveness to tactile stimulation and in their ability to discriminate among different intensities of such stimulation. (Author/SB)

Explored patterns of emotional communication in 70 mother-infant dyads, emphasizing both mother and child roles in affect regulation. Display of maternal positive and negative affects decreased with age; child affects were unchanged. Maternal sensitivity was associated with maternal matching of son's affects and daughter's creation of shared…

This interim report is part of a longitudinal study of developmental behavior designed to determine whether infants from culturally disadvantaged homes have different developmental patterns than infants from advantaged homes. Twenty six culturally disadvantaged infants were individually evaluated on the Bayley Scale of Infant Mental and Motor…

This longitudinal study examined the interrelationship between sex of the child and sex of the parent on the expression of attachment behaviors during the child's first 2 years. Special consideration was given developmental changes in the attachment structure and the relationship of attachment to cognitive development. Ten boys and 10 girls were…

Based on findings that report differences between cries of normal and clinically abnormal infants, this study examined the relationship between birthweight and behavioral and acoustic features of neonatal cry because of the long-standing association between birthweight, perinatal trauma, and subsequent development. Subjects were 88 neonates…

Tests the hypothesis that, while the difference in rate of smiling to O degree v non-O degree orientations will diminish with increasing age with silent and/or unfamiliar faces, infants over 14 weeks of age should continue to discriminate between a talking familiar 0 degree face, and all other combinations of orientation, familiarity, and silent…

This study was designed to identify aggressive actions in 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old infants and to investigate what type of responses these actions elicit in peers. Nine infants were observed and videotaped in interaction with each other and with toys. The focus was on four 18-month-olds observed in two sessions, one with an older child, the…

Patterns of mothering and fathering in 72 families were observed longitudinally and from the perspective of the family system when infants were 1, 3, and 9 months old. Findings suggested similarities and differences in mothering and fathering. (Author/RH)

Despite previous research indicating that early negative child behavior and the quality of parent-child relationships are predictive of later externalizing problems, few investigators have attempted to trace these antecedents back to infancy. In a sample of 100 infants from low-income families, infant persistence and maternal responsiveness were…