Attempts to determine whether infants' performance in two search tasks is related to their entry into Stage 6 of object permanence development (thereby testing Piaget's claim that only Stage 6 infants possess the capacity for representation). (BD)

Wary infants were more likely than bold infants to reference their mothers when the stimulus, a caged rabbit, was first presented; however, as the exploration period progressed, bold and wary infants referenced equally often. Referencing occurred less often than affective sharing. (RH)

Study looks at pigtailed macaque in the context of visual recognition problems adapted from a standardized test developed for use with human infants. Results demonstrate that the low-risk group easily differentiated novel from previously seen targets; the high-risk group gave no evidence of recognition. (Author/RWB)

Adopts a longitudinal design to track mother-child developmental change in infant task-related mastery and concomitant maternal behavior. Finds that, as infants gain more mastery across time, mothers gradually withdraw support in terms of concrete, specific and nonverbal means of instruction. Results support a one-step-ahead model for maternal…

Studied across a 16-month period, young children of deaf parents showed accelerated early language development, on the average producing their first recognizable sign at 8.5 months, their tenth sign at 13.2 months, and their first sign combination at 17.0 months. Findings are inconsistent with previously reported patterns of synchrony between…

Teachers and researchers of public speaking, rhetoric, small group, or interpersonal communication are all affected by research in communication competence. This essay discusses the consequences of applying a developmental-biological perspective to understanding the nature of communication competence. (PD)

The behavior of a preverbal infant was analyzed in a search for orderly and systematic patterns. Basic elements of the infant's repertoire were distinguished. A comparison was made between the nonverbal and those verbal structures which appear early. (Author/RM)

Seven-month-old infants require redundant information such as temporal synchrony to learn arbitrary syllable-object relations. Infants learned the relations between spoken syllables, /a/ and /i/, and two moving objects only when temporal synchrony was present during habituation. Two experiments examined infants' memory for these relations. In…

Authors look at a range of variation in experience of five- to six-month-old infants on a concrete behavioral level, and conceptualize these discrete behaviors. (Authors/MB)

Qualitatively, the more suppressive and critical the mother, the less responsive the baby was in social play with her. The more the baby responded to his mother, the less he responded to a stranger. (Author)

An infant's unique style and temperament is thought to develop during a given small time segment as a consequence of the initiatives taken by caretaker or infant; usually an interaction of the two. (WY)

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of the Brazelton exam as a parent education tool for mothers and fathers. Target parents in treatment groups were taught to perform the Brazelton exam on their own infant, with attention being drawn to the infant's most positive interactive and physical abilities. (Author/RH)

This paper focuses on infants within a family system as specific sources of stress that may lead to child abuse. Current prevention efforts are assessed and potential prevention efforts are discussed. (Author/EB)