This study of five month olds compared global maternal opinion with reports on direct observation by mothers and observers. A common set of behaviors thought to index temperament was evaluated. Observers recorded infant behaviors on two home visits. Mother-observer agreement for assessments based on home visits was significant. (SH)

Used an event-based approach to study the nature of coordination in 3- and 6-month olds during interaction with their caregivers. Found that infants coordinated their vocalizations and facial actions more than expected by chance. When two communicative events were temporally associated across modalities, one event tended to be embedded within the…

This study examined developmental characteristics of 82 deaf and hard-of-hearing children identified through the high-risk registry in Colorado either before or after 6 months of age. Children identified early and receiving intervention two to three months after identification had significantly higher levels of receptive and expressive language,…

Observed 12-month olds, with their mothers and independently, acting on objects from home and objects brought by the experimenter as new exemplars of previous toys. Found that conventional actions were more frequent in joint than in independent activity. In independent activity, conventional actions were more frequent with customary than with…

Evaluated role of visual input during reaching and grasping. Found that both infants and adults completed a reach and grasp to a darkened object but used vision when object remained visible. Infants contacted the object more often when it remained visible, although with longer durations and more movement units. Adults reached faster and more…

Examined visual fixation in infants 6 months to 2 years old for fit with theory of attentional inertia. Found that fixations had lognormal distribution, heart rate decreased during a look, and heart rate returned to prestimulus levels immediately before look offset. Older children showed different looking patterns to two types of stimuli; younger…

Five full-term and five preterm children with blindness (age 12 months) were visited at home with their families every two weeks for two years. An individualized, disability-specific early intervention that used different types of parent involvement was successful in accelerating development of the full-term infants, particularly in orientation…

Presented five- and eight-month olds with silent moving and static video images of self, peer, and doll, and sounds of self and nonsocial objects. Found that recognition of one's image develops through experience with dynamic facial stimulation during first eight months. By five months, infants treat their faces and voices as familiar and social…

Compared performance of infants with autism, developmental delays, or normal development on a prospective screening instrument for autism. Found that 20-month-olds with autism lacked social gaze in empathy and joint attention tasks. Infants with autism or developmental delays demonstrated functional play. Few produced spontaneous pretend play.…

Three experiments compared infants' reactions to videos of normally responsive women varying in eye contact. Found that, relative to frontal faces, three-month olds smiled less at images averting head and eye (H&I), head alone (H), and closing eyes (ECL) but not at averting eyes (E). Five-month-olds smiled less at H&I, E, and ECL but not…

Two experiments examined role of affective correspondence between signal and outcome in 4-month olds' associative learning. Found that only when consoling infant-directed speech signaled the sad face did infants' visual interest in a checkerboard increase. Arousing infant-directed speech signaling either the smiling or sad face produced positive…

Videotaped infants with extensive day-care experience, and their mothers during "Strange" situation procedures. Compared behavior with profiles published in Ainsworth et al. (1978) for differences. Found three distinct groups of infants: securely-attached (largest group), insecurely attached (smallest group), and infants not disturbed by…

Evaluated an intervention designed to influence mothers' sensitive responsiveness toward their infant by presenting information about the newborn's competence to interact and promoting affectionate handling and interaction. Found that the enhancement group showed greater frequency of co-occurrences involving vocal exchanges, looking to the…

Meta-analysis of the A-not-B error was conducted, using logistic regression, on studies conducted before September 1997. Results replicated earlier findings, with exception that the number of trials at the A location was a significant predictor, and the number of locations was a significant predictor of the proportion of infants who searched…

Two experiments investigated whether preverbal infants distinguish between humans and mammals. Study 1 found that 7-, 9-, and 11-month-olds distinguished humans from mammals in an object-examination task. Study 2 found that 7-month-olds but not 5-month-olds showed evidence for category discrimination with the 2-dimensional color photos of toy…