Two experiments investigated the role of distractor characteristics and type of object-directed attention on 7- and 10-month-old infants' distraction latencies during object exploration. Found that infants took longer to turn toward distractors during focused object-directed attention than when engaged in more casual attention. They exhibited…

Offers suggestions for facilitating infant play for the following age groups: birth to 4 months, 4 to 8 months, 8 to 12 months, and 12 to 18 months. Suggestions cover play materials and some activities. (KB)

Two experiments investigated whether novel phonotactic regularities, not present in English, could be acquired by 16.5-month-olds from brief auditory experience. Subjects listened to consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which particular consonants were artificially restricted to either initial or final position. Findings in a subsequent…

Studied the organization of the behaviors involved in the development of prehension by 80 infants of 1-8 months. Four types of behavior patterns that occurred at different periods were found to constitute the development of prehension. (BG)

Compared effects of contingent and noncontingent adult-infant social interactions on subsequent infant-controlled habituation and choice tasks of 26 infants of 3 months. Infants who experienced a prior noncontingent social interaction tended to adopt response strategies that reduced the density of stimulation during subsequent nonsocial tasks.…

A total of 73 three- to six-month-old infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers were videotaped in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with nondepressed female strangers. Depressed mothers and their infants received lower ratings on all behaviors than did nondepressed dyads. (SKC)

While 18 5-month-old infants viewed photographic slides of faces posed in happy, neutral, or angry expressions, a brief acoustic noise burst was presented to elicit the blink component of human startle. It was found that blink size was augmented during the viewing of angry expressions and reduced during viewing of happy expressions. (MDM)

Looking preferences to visual temporal frequencies were examined in 77 infants at 3 ages (newborn, 1 month, and 4 months) in 3 conditions: less aroused (after feeding), more aroused-internal (before feeding), and more aroused-external (after feeding with 8 Hertz visual stimulation). Found that infants preferred faster stimuli when less aroused and…

Describes fetal development patterns within the framework of concurrent separateness from and oneness with the mother. Touches on the infant developmental stages along the way to becoming a wholly separate being. (HTH)

Facial expressions were examined in 84 3-month-old infants of mothers classified as depressed, nondepressed, or low scoring on the Beck Depression Inventory. Infants of both depressed and low-scoring mothers showed significantly more sadness and anger expressions and fewer interest expressions than infants of nondepressed mothers. (Author/MDM)

Nine- to 16-month-old infants explored pairs of novel toys in 2 conditions: violated expectation, in which the first toy produced an interesting nonobvious property and the second toy did not; and interest control, in which neither toy produced the interesting property. Infants persistently attempted to reproduce the interesting property in the…

The effects of practice on 2 elementary neuromotor patterns, stepping and sitting, were investigated in 32 6-week-old male infants. After 7 weeks, infants who received elicitation of the stepping pattern, alone or in combination with sitting exercises, stepped more than infants who received no exercise or sitting exercise only. (MDM)

Four experiments examined exogenous orienting in 3.5-month-olds. Found that sensitivity to a small moving bar was lower when most of the red bars were in the visual field contra-lateral to this probe. The distribution of color within the visual field biased attention, making it either more or less likely that the infant detected a moving stimulus.…

Presents suggested play activities for parents to do with infants from birth to 12 months that stimulate the infant's senses, encourage exploration, and satisfy security needs. Activities, games, and songs are described for birth to 2 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 9 months, and 10 to 12 months. (KB)

Examined behavioral/physiological responses of 2-month-olds during physical examinations. Found that colic infants cried twice as much, cried more intensely, and were more inconsolable than control infants. Heart rate, vagal tone, and cortisol measures showed no appreciable difference. At home, colic infants displayed a blunted rhythm in cortisol…