Investigated infants' reactions to the face-to-face/still-face paradigm. Infants reacted to the still-face with negative affect, a drop in vagal tone, and an increase in heart rate. By contrast, they reacted to the reunion episode with a mixed pattern of positive and negative affect. (HTH)

Examined relations between reactivity (peak response) and regulation (response dampening) in 6-month-olds' cortisol and behavioral responses to inoculation. Found that reactivity and regulation were unrelated for both cortisol and behavior, suggesting both measures are needed to characterize more accurately infant response to stress. Found…

Two studies investigated whether 10- and 12-month-olds can use televised emotional reactions to guide their behavior. Findings indicated that 12-month-olds avoided the target object and showed increases in negative affect after observing an actress orient toward a novel object with negative affect, but their responses to positive versus neutral…

Studied 112 preterm infants to determine developmental changes and stability of individual differences. Results indicate significant developmental gains with age, and highly significant individual stability of performance across age. (RJC)

Relations between temperament dimensions and attachment behaviors were evaluated. Results were consistent with previous findings that temperament measures do not predict attachment security. (PCB)

Investigated emotional responses to the still-face paradigm in preterm and full-term black infants. Preterm infants spent less time than full-term infants displaying big smiles in one episode, and showed a less pronounced decrease in big smiles in a second episode. Results confirm the robustness of the still-face paradigm. (HTH)

Baseline and heelstick measures of behavioral state, heart period, vagal tone, and salivary cortisol were obtained from 50 full-term newborns. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire when the infants reached six months of age. Greater reactivity to the heelstick was associated with lower scores on the…

Observers and mothers rated infant behavior in the home on dimensions of temperament once a week for eight weeks. Although week-to-week correlations were modest, aggregates of the eight observations had high reliability for both observers and mothers. When direct observations were compared with mother reports, little evidence of mother-observer…

A theory of infant skill acquisition was supported by observations, over a six-week period, of the bouncing activity of eight infants while they were supported in a harness assembly. Observed three stages of activity: an initial assembly stage, when movement was irregular and variable in period; a tuning phase of more periodic movement; a final…

Uses the still-face paradigm as a framework for examining the range of social regulatory capacities available to infants during stressful times. (PCB)

In a laboratory procedure, 66 infants of 12 months were given happy, fearful, and conflicting emotional signals by their mothers and fathers with reference to five unusual toy stimuli. There were marked differences among infants in their capacity for and style of coping with conflict. A variety of specific responses to conflict were observed. (RH)

Examined the effect of maternal soothing to infant inoculation as well as everyday distress on infant cortisol and behavioral responses to stress in two samples of infants between 2 and 6 months of age. Found no evidence that maternal soothing reduced cortisol or behavioral-stress responses, despite evidence for cross-time stability and…

Examined relationship between emotion regulation at ages 5, 10, and 18 months, and compliance at 30 months. Found that infants with low levels of regulatory behavior were more likely to be noncompliant as toddlers. High cardiac vagal tone was related to noncompliance to toy clean-up, whereas low cardiac vagal tone was related to noncompliance to…

Examined differences in acoustic characteristics of cries, both early and late, within a prolonged crying bout. Results indicated that late cries appeared to result from a smaller number of factors than did early cries. Results support notions that crying bouts settle into a regular cry with acoustic features matching a theoretical model of cry…

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…