Examined the relation between infant-sibling affective involvement and the attachment security of 1-7-year-old children of 53 mothers. Secure infants reacted less negatively than insecure infants when mothers turned their attention to an older child. (RJC)

Studied individual differences in reactivity in 40 newborns. Measures of reactivity were related during the first two months of extrauterine life. (RJC)

Two groups of infants were studied to demonstrate that changes in reaching are determined by the interaction of organismic and environmental constraints. The infants were placed in three different positions and observed for quantity and quality of reaching. Results indicated that both environmental constraints and growth contribute to reaching in…

Examined emotion regulation strategy use in 75 infants between 6 and 18 months during interactions with strangers. Compared to 12- and 18-month olds, the 6-month olds were more likely to use gaze aversion and fussing as their primary regulation strategy and were less likely to use self-soothing and self-distraction. (HTH)

Two experiments investigated 8-, 10-, and 12-month-old infants' levels of searching for mothers, strangers, and objects. Found that, overall, 10- and 12-month-old infants had higher levels of searching for mothers, whereas youngest infants showed no differences for searching. This discrepancy is likely due to social cognitive development and…

Examined the relationship between infant attractiveness and maternal behavior by observing mothers feeding and playing with their firstborn infants immediately after giving birth and when the infants were three months of age. Found that mothers of more attractive infants were more affectionate and playful compared with mothers of less attractive…

Three studies examined infants' responses to tactile stimulation by adults who offered neutral facial expressions to the infants. Results implied that adult touch and facial expressions act as modulators of infant affect and attention in social exchanges. (BC)

A modified Visual Expectation Paradigm assessed the role of picture content in the spatiotemporal expectations of 80 infants. Stable picture content information facilitated formation of expectations about when and where pictures would appear. Two month olds' reactions were consistently slower than those of three month olds.(LB)

In a study of 20 preterm infants--10 of low socioeconomic status" (SES)--and 33 full-term infants--16 of low SES--from 0;4 through 1;6, premature infants showed reliably less mature vocal patterns than their full-age mates. Premature infants were indistinguishable from full-term infants matched for gestational age in infraphonological…

Used event-related potentials to examine infants' ability to form representations of stimuli presented in a haptic modality and to then recognize these stimuli as familiar when the stimuli were subsequently presented in a visual modality. Found that in certain conditions infants encoded the haptically familiarized object, then transferred their…

Relates the origin and aims of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) begun in 1972. It has failed to improve the health of newborn children or lower the infant mortality rate, because these problems relate to behavior rather than lack of food. Prenatal care and medical intervention are more appropriate…

Notes that early infancy, rather than being a period of helplessness, is a period of active exploration and reciprocal interaction with caregivers. Includes activities caregivers can engage in with infants to stimulate infant sensory abilities. (HTH)

Five experiments examined 15- and 18-month olds' sensitivity to morphosyntactic dependencies. Results indicated that 18-month olds, but not 15-month olds, were sensitive to basic relationship between "is" and "-ing" and that 18-month-olds could track relationships between functor morphemes. Findings were consistent with hypothesis that 18-month…

Two experiments investigated whether 5-month olds would look longer at rotating "drawbridge" appearing to violate physical laws because they knew it was causally impossible. Findings indicated that infants' longer gaze at 180-degree rotations was due to simple perceptual preference for more motion, challenging Baillargeon's (1987) claim…

Two studies examined messages conveyed in infant-directed lullabies and play songs. Findings indicated that adult raters differentiated audio recordings of mothers' lullaby- and play-song-styles with 100% accuracy and performed at above chance level in identifying which music 6-month olds were hearing on silent videotapes. Infants focused…