AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS STIMULUS CONDITIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE INFANT IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE AND THE IMPACT OF THESE STIMULI ON HIS ADAPTIVE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS WAS PRESENTED. INFANTS WERE OBSERVED IN FOUR CHILD-REARING ENVIRONMENTS--RESIDENTIAL, KIBBUTZ, SINGLE-CHILD FAMILY, AND MULTIPLE-CHILD FAMILY. UNDER THEORETICAL ORIENTATION, THESE…

This study was designed to test two alternate hypotheses regarding the meaning of increased lateral head movements in infants during experiments in which the mothers' voices were displaced from their faces. One interpretation is that the lateral looking responses of the infants are attributable to maturational effects on the infants' physiological…

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…

The paper discusses the assessment of infant adaptive behavior and its relationship to the adaptive behavior of the mother, focusing on the discovery of disruption and asynchrony in early mother-infant interaction. The development of the earliest patterns of interaction between mother and infant is discussed, along with the relationship between…

This paper draws together briefly theories and knowledge from research in morphology and cognitive psychology, as well as some hypothetical information from traditional psychiatry, to show the ramifications of play in children's development. Play is defined as any of a wide variety of behaviors through which an individual attempts to discover what…

This study examined sex-role typing in older adults' interpretations of young children's behavior. Participants were 48 older adults averaging 64.7 years of age. Videotapes were made of the play behavior of each of two toddlers, a female and a male matched in body type, hair length, dress (plain tee shirt and shorts), and in the activities in…

This study explores the development of visual self-recgonition by examining the effect of rouge application on the subsequent mirror behavior of 96 infants, ages 9-24 months. Each infant was observed in front of a mirror in four consecutive conditions: (1) with no rouge applied to infant's nose (baseline), (2) with a dot of rouge on infant's nose,…

This report is based on a longitudinal analysis of physical-contact interaction of mother-infant pairs throughout the first year of life. The sample consisted of 26 middle-class mother-infant pairs who were observed in their homes for four hours once every three weeks. During each visit, the observer made a running record of everything that…

Studies of the infant's distribution of attention to stimuli of varying complexity, and of his differential attention to familiar versus novel stimuli (discrepancy), have attempted to shed light on the development of cognitive structures in the non-verbal infant. The subjects have typically been normal infants ages 4 to 6 months. For testing, the…

This manual describes the Caregiver Language Observation Instrument, a device useful for observing the language behavior of caregivers in infant day care settings. Eleven categories of language behavior are recorded: approval, disapproval, cautioning, soothing, talking to, questioning, labeling, elaborating, singing, directing, and imitating. The…

The following are sketched in outline form: (1) functional antecedents and their implications for language--assimilation, accommodation, circular reactions/ feedback processes, classification, discrimination, functional equivalence, representation, transformation, communications; (2) semantic antecedents and their implications for language--human…

This report is concerned with systems useful for observing parent-child behavior. Part I. discusses observations in contrived situations, unstructured situations; in neighborhoods, laboratory, home and classroom. The paper details the point-time sampling approach, intersession rating procedure, anecdotal records, diary descriptions, (topical and…

A study was conducted in which the infants' behavior was allowed to control stimulus duration. A group of five infants were tested once a week from 3 through 14 weeks of age. A second group of five infants were tested once a week from 8 through 14 weeks of age. A third group of 18 infants were tested once at 3, 8, or 14 weeks of age. Once a…

Vocalizations of two female infants, recorded over a five-week period after the first emergence of cooing were studied. It was found that the features of the more primitive sound types regrouped themselves in comfort sounds. The implications for theories of prespeech development are discussed. (EJS)

Provides an update of information on infant nurturance and early learning of special interest to providers of services to parents and infants. (BR)