This study examined the relation of infant emotional responses of anger and sadness to cortisol response in 2 goal blockage situations. One goal blockage with 4-month-old infants (N=56) involved a contingency learning procedure where infants' learned response was no longer effective in reinstating an event. The other goal blockage with 6-month-old…

In order to specify the factor structure and stability of infant and maternal behavior, mother/infant interaction was observed when infants were 12 and 24 months of age. Mothers and infants observed in dyadic interaction in a playroom during a 15-minute free play period represented a heterogeneous sample across gender, socioeconomic status, and…

This study was designed to test two alternate hypotheses regarding the meaning of increased lateral head movements in infants during experiments in which the mothers' voices were displaced from their faces. One interpretation is that the lateral looking responses of the infants are attributable to maturational effects on the infants' physiological…

This study explores the development of visual self-recgonition by examining the effect of rouge application on the subsequent mirror behavior of 96 infants, ages 9-24 months. Each infant was observed in front of a mirror in four consecutive conditions: (1) with no rouge applied to infant's nose (baseline), (2) with a dot of rouge on infant's nose,…

Reports a study of 110 newborn infants' responses to the heelstick procedure to draw blood samples, and of the responses of 40 of those infants to their first inoculations at two months of age. Discusses measures of distress; stability of reactivity across time; and individual differences and health of the infant as factors in reactivity. (NH)

Portions of this paper were presented at the 1967 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New York.

The literature on the psychological construct of state is reviewed, and it is proposed that state be defined in terms of an infant-environment interaction. Interactive behavior of 32 mother-infant dyads was observed in the home for a total of 2 hours for each pair, in order to explore various types of interactive processes and analyses. A…

The purpose of this paper is to outline some application of the Markov Process to the study of state and state changes. The essence of this mathematical concept consists of the analysis of sequences of infant responses in interaction with its environment. Categories can be defined which reflect the joint occurrence of an infant's behavior (or…

The most impressive class difference in one-year-old infants revealed by this study was that lower-class infants vocalized considerably less in the playroom than did middle-class infants. (Authors)

A total of 87 infants 10 months of age received, either directly or indirectly, a positive nonverbal message, a neutral nonverbal message, or no message about a stranger. Infants, especially those with easy temperaments, were friendlier to the stranger when mothers had spoken positively, but only when the message was directly communicated.…

One pathway through which second order effects proceed is "social referencing," a process in which the individual utilizes another's interpretation when appraising a situation. This phenomenon is well identified in adults and older children. While it had not been studied in infancy, there are good indications that the necessary cognitive…

This paper presents research findings on differences in the social and cognitive behavior of first born and only children at 3, 12, and 24 months of age as observed at home and in a free play laboratory setting. The sample consisted of 21 only children (children who did not acquire a sibling for at least the first 48 months of life) and 35 first…

Theories and descriptions of various infant fear behaviors are presented in this paper. Five examples of fear are given: (1) learned fear, in which the infant associates some unpleasant action with an agent, (2) unlearned fear, in which the infant experiences an intense sensory phenomena such as a loud noise, (3) stranger anxiety, (4) fear caused…

Ten mother-infant dyads were observed in their homes for four hours each during one month in order to measure interactive aspects of their behavior. Demographic data are included for the participating families, who are members of the Wolof in Senegal, Africa. For this study, interaction was defined as a sequence of behaviors involving both…