Two experiments investigated the ability of 3-month-olds to acquire generalized expectancies of reward and the role of these expectancies in memory retrieval. In both experiments, infants exhibited positive transfer over invariant and variable stimulus series; however, in the second experiment, violations of either expected order produced a…

Investigates the effect of the relationship between conditions at encoding (familiarization) and retrieval (test) with regard to infants' performance on a paired-comparison recognition test. Subjects were 32 male and 32 female infants between 8.7 and 10.3 months of age. (MP)

Differences in response of four- to seven-month-old infants to tachistoscopically presented photographs of two human faces suggest infants were able to remember a frequently presented face from trial to trial and discriminate it from a discrepant, infrequently presented face. Findings suggest event-related brain potential (ERP) responses could…

Twenty-five one-year-olds were administered two tasks (each of which consisted of a familiarization stage followed by a recognition stage) in order to determine whether infants can recognize the shapes of objects by touch alone. (CM)

Three experiments manipulated 3-month-olds' attention to different components of a training display and assessed the effect on retention. Results suggested that increasing or decreasing attention to an item during encoding produces a corresponding increase or decrease in memorability. Findings were consistent with a levels-of-processing account…

Three experiments investigated discrimination and memory of 5.5-month-olds for videotapes of women performing different activities (blowing bubbles, brushing hair, brushing teeth) or static displays after a 1-minute and a 7-week delay. Findings demonstrate the attentional salience of actions over faces in dynamic events to 5.5-month-olds. Findings…

Presented paired-comparison familiarization-novelty recognition task to 4-month-olds. Found that peak look duration during pretest and familiarization periods predicted recognition performance. Recognition was unaffected by choice-trial length. Longer gaze durations during pretest and familiarization were associated with more time in heart…

Investigates ability of nine-month-old infants to imitate simple actions with novel objects. Looks at both immediate and deferred imitation. Findings show that imitation in early infancy can span wide enough delays to be of potential service in social development. (Author/RWB)

Trained 3-month olds to move an overhead crib mobile while one of two musical selections was played, and assessed retention one or seven days later in presence of same or different music. Found that infants displayed one-day retention regardless of musical selection. At seven days, retention was seen only when test music matched training music.…