Revealed that 6-month-old infants are unable to access either an original memory or a reactivated memory after lengthy intervals. Despite the fact that their memory processing is more rapid during encoding and retrieval than that of infants half their age, their facility for accessing an original or reactivated memory is weaker than that of such…

Three studies examined adrenocortical activity in infants. Morning naps were associated with decreases in salivary cortisol. Riding for 40 minutes in a car lowered salivary cortisol concentrations. Thirty minutes of maternal separation in the laboratory resulted in higher salivary cortisol concentrations than did 30 minutes of play with the mother…

Considers aspects of the structural design of conventions observed in parent-child interaction. Examines kinds of design differences that occur in conventions and the consequences of those differences, particularly for parent-child coordination. (PCB)

No main effect relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament at 9 months and attachment classification at 13 months were found. Proneness-to-distress temperament was associated with maternal behavior and personality. (PCB)

Two experiments studied infants' use of remembered knowledge of auditory-visual events to guide reaching and grasping. Results indicated that reaching was initiated and completed after sound cues ceased. Accurate searching depended on subjects' experience in light presentation. Results suggest that 6 1/2-month-olds can represent unseen objects and…

Examined parents' and 4-month-old infants' behavior during face-to-face interactions. Results indicated that mothers and fathers were equally sensitive to their infants, and that infants' affect and regulatory behaviors were stable across mother-infant and father-infant situations in the still-face model. (BC)

Examined the impact of fathers giving massages to their infants, ages 3 to 14 months, for 15 minutes prior to their daily bedtime for 1 month. Found that fathers who had massaged their infants were more expressive and showed more enjoyment and more warmth during floor-play interactions with their infants than did fathers in the wait-list control…

Studied head-orientation response of breast-feeding neonates in paired-choice odor tests. Found that 2-day olds detected amniotic fluid and colostrum, treating them as similar sensorily and/or hedonically. Four-day olds exhibited a preference for breast milk. Three-day olds oriented longer toward the odor of their own amniotic fluid than alien…

Child-directed speech segments produced by mothers of 2- to 6-month olds varying in self-reported depressive symptoms were assessed on a summation test with 4-month olds of nondepressed mothers. Significant positive summation was obtained in infants tested with speech produced by mothers with comparatively fewer self-reported depressive symptoms…

Four experiments utilizing the familiarization-novelty preference procedure examined whether 3- and 4-month-olds could form categorical representations for cats versus dogs from the perceptual information available in silhouettes. Findings indicated that general shape or external contour information centered about the head was sufficient for…

Infants experienced a female adult handing them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age…

This study examined exploratory behaviors used by 12 infants who were congenitally blind and 12 infants who were sighted to note similarities and differences in exploration. By including both groups of infants and matching the infants by age and their mothers' education, direct comparisons could be made between the groups. No differences were…

We here describe a discrete trial, forced-choice, combined spontaneous preference and novelty preference technique. In this technique, spontaneous preferences and familiarized (postfamiliarization) preferences are measured with the same stimulus pairs under closely parallel conditions. A variety of systematic stimulus variations were used in…

Forty infants (mean age 5 months) of depressed mothers and non-depressed mothers were seated in an infant seat and were exposed to four different degrees of animation, including a still-face Raggedy Ann doll (about two-feet tall suspended in front of the infant), the same doll in an animated state talking and head-nodding, an imitative mother and…

Human adults are more accurate at discriminating faces from their own race than faces from another race. This "other-race effect" (ORE) has been characterized as a reflection of face processing specialization arising from differential experience with own-race faces. We examined whether 3.5-month-old infants exhibit ORE using morphed faces on which…