In human newborns, spontaneous visual preference for biological motion is reported to occur at birth, but the factors underpinning this preference are still in debate. Using a standard visual preferential looking paradigm, 4 experiments were carried out in 3-day-old human newborns to assess the influence of translational displacement on perception…

Infants' preference for faces was investigated in a cross-sectional sample of 75 children, aged 3 to 11 months, and 23 adults. A visual preference paradigm was used where pairs of faces and toys were presented side-by-side while eye gaze was recorded. In addition, motor activity was assessed via parent report and the relation between motor…

We examined two aspects of temperamental approach in early infancy, positive reactivity and anger, and their unique and combined influences on maternal reports of child surgency and attention focusing at 4 years of age. One hundred and fourteen infants were observed for their positive reactions to novel stimuli at 4 months, and their anger…

In the present study, we examined if young infants can extract information regarding the directionality of biological motion. We report that 6-month-old infants can differentiate leftward and rightward motions from a movie depicting the sagittal view of an upright human point-light walker, walking as if on a treadmill. Inversion of the stimuli…

This study examined 6-month-old infants' abilities to use the visual information provided by simulated self-movement through the world, and movement of an object through the world, for spatial orientation. Infants were habituated to a visual display in which they saw a toy hidden, followed by either rotation of the point of observation through the…

The tracking behavior of Infants up to 5 months of age was studied using linear and circular trajectories, with partial occlusion of the trajectories. Results indicate that it is not until the age of about 16 weeks that infants can be said to be tracking a moving object as an object. (Author/WY)

Investigates whether five-week-old infants' attention to a schematic face would increase as the velocity of its oscillating eye dots increases. Twenty-four infants served as subjects. (MP)

Two studies investigated whether 10- to 11-month-olds possess skills for parsing ongoing behavior along boundaries correlated with initiation and completion of intentions. Found that infants showed renewed interest in test videos in which motion paused in the midst of an actor's pursuit of intentions; suspended motion at intentional boundary…

Examined exogenous orienting among infants between 7 and 21 weeks of age in 2 experiments using display with multiple potential attention targets. Found that as early as 7 weeks of age, sensitivity for a small moving stimulus can be significantly influenced by the simultaneous presence of competing attention targets. Found large increases in…

Three experiments investigated use of visual input and body movement input arising from movement through the world on spatial orientation. Experiments involved infants searching for a toy hidden in one of two containers. Findings indicated that search was best after infant movement in a lit environment prior to searching; all other conditions led…

Three experiments investigated discrimination and memory of 5.5-month-olds for videotapes of women performing different activities (blowing bubbles, brushing hair, brushing teeth) or static displays after a 1-minute and a 7-week delay. Findings demonstrate the attentional salience of actions over faces in dynamic events to 5.5-month-olds. Findings…

Three experiments examined 4- and 6-month-olds' sensitivity to the unity of a partly occluded moving rod undergoing translation, rotation, or oscillation. Findings suggested that all types of common motion were not equivalent for specifying infants' perceptions of occluded objects. (Author)

Three experiments were conducted to examine whether infants can detect the color of stationary and moving objects and maintain this discrimination over change in velocity. Subjects were 80 infants ages 8 to 20 weeks. (MP)

Three experiments explored 5- and 7-month-olds' intermodal coordination of proprioceptive information produced by leg movements and visual movement information specifying these same motions. Results suggested that coordination of visual and proprioceptive inputs is constrained by infants' information processing of the displays and have…