The reactions of 38 infants to two social stimuli (talking and smiling) as well as a nonsocial stimulus (a rotating musical mobile) were observed longitudinally when the infants were 4-, 12- and 20-weeks-old. (CM)

Examined the function and effectiveness of certain behaviors in regulating negative arousal in infants who participated in an arm restraint procedure at age 5 months and a toy removal task at age 10 months. Results showed that comforting behaviors were preferred at both 5 and 10 months of age. (MDM)

Eight experiments involving 134 infants aged 7.5 to 11.5 months show that even the youngest give evidence that they use featural information to individuate objects in an occlusion event. When tested with an event-mapping task, even 9.5-month olds give evidence that they can use featural information to interpret an occlusion event as long as the…

The goal of this investigation was to study the regulatory retention effects of an adult's emotional displays on infant behavior. In Study 1, 11- and 14-month-old infants were tested in a social-referencing-like paradigm in which a 1-hr delay was imposed between the exposure trials and the test trial. In Study 2, 11-month-olds were tested in the…

Adults and children readily construct action representations organized with respect to an ultimate goal. These representations allow one to predict the consequences of action, interpret and describe actions, and categorize action sequences. In this paper, we explore the ontogeny of hierarchically organized action representations, and its relation…

Disorganized attachment in infancy is known to predict a wide range of maladaptive outcomes, but its origins are poorly understood. Parental lack of resolution concerning loss or trauma has been proposed to result in atypical parenting behaviors, which in turn have a disorganizing effect on the parent-child relationship. The authors review the…

Purpose: The ontogeny of mandibular control is important for understanding the general neurophysiologic development for speech and alimentary behaviors. Prior investigations suggest that mandibular control is organized distinctively across speech and nonspeech tasks in 15-month-olds and adults and that, with development, these extant forms of…

Cardiac and behavioral reactions to strangers were measured in 5-, and 9-month-olds. Results indicate that: (1) behavioral differences between 5- and 9-month-olds are reflected in heart rate differences, (2) there are differences in heart rate but not behaviors when mothers are absent, and (3) heart rate response is linked to affective expression.…

Two experiments, involving a total of 12 subjects, demonstrated the role of adults as releasers of infant vocal sounds, indicating that both rate and percent of bursts of vocal sounds are increased by adult stimulation. Both response-dependent and response-independent social stimulation were effective when infants could see the adult's eyes. (GO)

The ability of 2-year-olds to carry out a forward search strategy was examined in a study of performance on platform rotation problems. One group of children was tested successively on two analogous versions of a task. The two versions shared the same underlying principle but had different surface characteristics. A control group was given an…

This study was designed to determine whether infants actually play with crib toys, and whether the toys affect the duration or onset of sleep. (CS)

Reports a semilongitudinal study which measured the respiratory activity during crying of 10 normal infants aged two days to eight months. (BD/BR)