Two experiments tested the effects of crawling-onset age, amount of crawling experience, and testing age on avoidance of the deep side of a visual cliff apparatus by human infants. Crawling-onset age disciminated between infants because crawling during the tactile phase interferes with later visual control of locomotion. (Author/RD)

Assesses ability of infant tests to predict language and cognitive development and to detect infants at risk for developmental problems. The Bayley Mental Development Index was particularly capable of detecting infants at risk for developmental delay. The Caldwell Inventory of Home Stimulation identified home environment as a key factor in…

Reviews research and current knowledge regarding infant auditory and visual perception and concludes that from a very early age, infants are able to perceive the world around them and organize their perceptual experience. Outlines areas for future research and application. (GC)

Proposes that sudden infant death and failure to thrive syndromes may have their origins in aberrations of learning processes due to perinatal stress, unstimulating environment, and/or inadequate learning experiences. (Author/GC)

Gazing behavior of 10 twin infants (five male and five female) and their mothers were recorded weekly during the babies' fourth month of life. Videotape equipment was used in the home; data were gathered as naturalistically as possible. (Author/MS)

This article examines the view of infants as passive recipients of social stimulation. It is argued that progress in the understanding of sociopersonality development will be achieved only when the competence of infants and the multidimensionality of the infant social world are acknowledged. (MS)

Trained 3-month olds to move an overhead crib mobile while one of two musical selections was played, and assessed retention one or seven days later in presence of same or different music. Found that infants displayed one-day retention regardless of musical selection. At seven days, retention was seen only when test music matched training music.…

Examined continuity, stability, and change in behaviors reflecting infant reactivity and regulation. Subjects were 100 infants of 5 and 10 months old. Found that infant behaviors during frustrating situations showed both change and continuity, but the relationship between reactivity and regulation changed in that both factors became more…

This study applied Meehl's taxometric techniques for distinguishing latent types from late continua to Strange Situation data on 1,139 fifteen-month-olds from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that variation in attachment patterns was largely continuous, not categorical. Implications of dimensional models for individual…

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-olds. Both experiments showed that arm responses increased when the contingent stimulus was lost or reduced but decreased when control of the stimulus was lost under noncontingency. Facial expressions of anger, but not…

Two studies examined whether infants' category discrimination in an object-examination task was based solely on an ad hoc analysis of perceptual similarities among the experimental stimuli. Findings indicated that 10- to 11-month- olds' responses varied systematically only with the presence of a category change, but not with the degree of…

This study assessed cognitive processing speed among full-term and preterm infants when they reached 5, 7, and 12 months of age. Findings indicated that at all ages, preterms required about 20 percent more trials and 30 percent more time than full-terms to reach criterion on a novelty preference task. Among preterms, slower processing was…

Two studies assessed the gaze following of 12-, 14-, and 18-month-olds. Findings indicated that infants at all ages looked at the adult's target more when the adult turned to the target with open eyes than when the adult turned with closed eyes. Additional evidence suggested that infants were not simply responding to adult head turning, but were…

Offers examples of what infants and toddlers might do in early childhood settings, how these behaviors are related to mathematics, and what teachers can do to encourage the natural mathematical interests of this age group. Asserts that teachers' interactions with children are vitally important to children's understanding of early mathematics. (KB)