Behaviors of monozygotic and dizygotic twins that were indicative of wariness were observed when the twins were 14, 20, and 24 months of age. An index of inhibition constructed from observations showed internal consistency at all ages and stability across ages. Heritability was a factor at all ages. (BC)

Eighteen-month-old children performed sorting tasks and their parents completed checklists of words used by the children. Children who performed exhaustive grouping, or grouping of objects of different kinds in different locations, were reported as using more words than children who did not perform exhaustive grouping. (BC)

Notes that, to deal with problems of substance-exposed infants, California must develop and adopt concerted interagency policy outlining uniform criteria for local health care workers, social service agencies, and educators; consistent guidelines governing interagency exchange of information; and increased prevention and early intervention…

Infants between four and eight months of age were tested for their ability to reach for visible and unseen toys that made sounds. Infants reached for toys in the dark under two auditory illusion conditions, the Haas effect and the midline illusion. Results indicated that, by four months of age, infants perceived the Haas effect and the midline…

Considers prevalence and problems of infants exposed to drugs in utero, citing drug abuse as primary cause of infant morbidity and mortality. Notes current data indicating that occurrence of substance-exposed infants has been increasing over past few years, with corresponding rise in number of such children entering schools. Provides overview of…

Investigated newborns' responses to decreased sound pressure level (SPL) by means of a localized head turning habituation procedure. Findings, which demonstrated recovery of neonatal head turning to decreased SPL, were inconsistent with the selective receptor adaptation model. (RH)

Infants were habituated to reversible and nonreversible pictures of faces. The reversible picture depicted a different face when inverted 180 degrees. For the reversible picture, the infants devoted more visual attention to the inverted picture than to the original picture. (BC)

Infants were familiarized haptically to an object and then presented with stimuli that were identical to or different in shape or texture from the first object. Infants demonstrated recognition of shape and texture when the stimuli were presented without delay; of shape when presented after a five-minute delay; and of texture when presented after…

Asserts that the model of the adult-infant dyad developing interaction, and then language, in the infant, is a better model than adult language for the analysis of some communication-like systems. When applied to silent film, the adult-infant dyad leads to the extraction of six principles of visually based developmental communication. (25…

In 2 experiments, 15- and 21-month-old infants were presented with a target object and asked to select an object taxonomically or thematically related to the target object. The target object was introduced with or without a novel nonsense noun. Results indicated that novel nouns focused infants' attention on taxonomic relations. (MDM)

Examines infants' ability to detect correlations among feature categories of the type that one might expect to be useful in forming natural object categories. (PCB)

Notes that studies on transition to parenthood and parent-infant relationship have investigated role of father. Sees family systems perspective focused on triadic and family-of-origin effects in early parenthood. Introduces object relations theory and self-psychology, which permit development of concept of psychic parental coalition, seen as…

Studied organization of family system among 54 couples whose oldest child was 12 months and 61 couples whose oldest child was between 24 and 66 months. Couples completed interviews, Family Ritual Questionnaire, and Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Preschool family group reported more family rituals than did infant group. Preschool families who reported…

Examined relationship between temporal contingency of maternal behavior and interactional quality. Found that although prompt responding was typical, the existence of individual differences indicated that this tendency was expressed in different communicative channels. The relationship between contingency and ratings of interactional quality was…

In three shape-constancy experiments, 4- and 7-year olds viewed a circular disc oriented at a slant. All subjects exaggerated circularity of the disc when they knew the object was a circle. Findings suggest that knowledge of reality contaminates judgments of appearance in circle task and this is the same bias that features in realist errors in…