This study attempted to distinguish between the ambivalent response of shyness and the more potent negative affect of fear in infancy. Sixty infants between 9 and 12 months of age participated in two laboratory situations: a nonsocial situation involving the presentation of a mechanical toy; and a social situation involving a standardized stranger…

An antecedent-consequent model of toddlers' socially directed messages to peers was developed to investigate the differential success of themes in eliciting interaction. Videotaped observational data collected under a short-term longitudinal design were obtained from two playgroups, each consisting of six toddler-age boys. Toddlers' social…

Young infants discriminate both native and nonnative phonetic contrasts, but 10- to 12-month-olds and adults fail to discriminate some nonnative contrasts. To explain this, Best, McRoberts, and Sithole (1988) hypothesized that at the age of 10-12 months, a phonological influence begins by means of which nonnative sounds are assimilated to native…

Two studies were conducted to examine (1) 1- to 3-day-old infants' imitation of their mothers, and (2) mothers' imitation of their newborn infants. For the infant imitation study, 30 mothers and their infants served as subjects. Two observers stood behind the mother to view the infant's face while the mother presented one of the following…

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the extent to which infants of different ages respond to facelike drawings on the basis of stimulus complexity and/or resemblance to the human face. Infants' responses to stimulus patterns were assessed using the corneal reflection technique developed by Robert Trantz. In the first two experiments,…

A total of 14 infants participated in this study of the recovery of visual orienting by crossmodal stimulation when no new visual information was present. The locus of the crossmodal stimulation (auditory stimulation) was discriminable to the subject. Infants in three age groups were tested on three occasions each separated by 30 days. No…

Two experiments are reported in which cardiac habituation and dishabituation to pure tone stimuli were studied in well and malnourished Guatemalan infants. In both studies the magnitude of the orienting response was found to be attenuated or completely absent in infants suffering from nutritional insult. The findings were taken as evidence of a…

The relationship between visual stimulus intensity and directional finger movements was examined in infants of two age groups (16 infants, 10 to 15 weeks old, and 8 infants, 20 to 25 weeks old). Two hypotheses derived from Schneirla's Approach-Withdrawal Theory were examined: (1) that responses of the younger, but not of the older infants, would…

This longitudinal study explored how gestures changed with with respect to speech as two children progressed from producing single words to producing two-word combinations. Two girls were followed from the production of only single words to their first production of two-word combinations. One child was followed from 14.5 to 18 months; the second…

This study compared the reinforcement effects of imitation to the elicitation effects of noncontingent maternal vocal stimulation. Subjects were 17 three- to six-month-old infants and their mothers. Infants received three successive experimental conditions: contingent imitation B1, noncontingent elicitations, and contingent imitation B2. Under the…

Infants' visual perception of number change was investigated in three studies. These studies focused on infants' perception of events in which the total number of objects in a small group was changed through addition of another object. Involving 60 infants 5 months of age, Study I attempted to determine whether subjects perceived the properties in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the alternative forms of young children's help-seeking in free play and problem-solving contexts. A total of 72 children aged 18 (N=36) and 24 (N=36) months were observed in pairs in free play and problem-solving settings, as well as in different social contexts--same-age versus mixed-age pairing. Both…

Discussed are methodological aspects of three symposium papers on process approaches to individual differences in infancy. Fagan's (1987) research is viewed as an important contribution to the growing literature that demonstrates that process measures, that is, information processing behaviors, may provide a useful reflection of early to later…

A total of 80 infants who were 7 months old were asked to discriminate happy and surprised expressions based on compound or component changes in the eyes, mouth, or entire face. Four stimuli were employed: black and white photographs of a Caucasian female modeling happy and surprised expressions, and two hybrid expressions created by transposing…

Observations were made of the incidence of pointing behavior among infants differing in age when a radio-controlled truck entered the room in which mother and infant were seated. Infants' reactions over 5 to 6 minutes were recorded on videotape. Recordings were analyzed to establish the incidence of pointing, handedness of pointing, whether…