Revealed that 6-month-old infants are unable to access either an original memory or a reactivated memory after lengthy intervals. Despite the fact that their memory processing is more rapid during encoding and retrieval than that of infants half their age, their facility for accessing an original or reactivated memory is weaker than that of such…

Two experiments studied infants' use of remembered knowledge of auditory-visual events to guide reaching and grasping. Results indicated that reaching was initiated and completed after sound cues ceased. Accurate searching depended on subjects' experience in light presentation. Results suggest that 6 1/2-month-olds can represent unseen objects and…

Examined parents' and 4-month-old infants' behavior during face-to-face interactions. Results indicated that mothers and fathers were equally sensitive to their infants, and that infants' affect and regulatory behaviors were stable across mother-infant and father-infant situations in the still-face model. (BC)

Infants experienced a female adult handing them toys. Sometimes, however, the transaction failed, either because the adult was in various ways unwilling to give the toy (e.g., she teased the child with it or played with it herself) or else because she was unable to give it (e.g., she accidentally dropped it). Infants at 9, 12, and 18 months of age…

Links between neonatal biological rhythms and the emergence of interaction rhythms were examined in 3 groups (N=71): high-risk preterms (HR; birth weight less than 1,000 g), low-risk preterms (LR; birth weight=1,700-1,850 g), and full-term (FT) infants. Once a week for premature infants and on the 2nd day for FT infants, sleep-wake cyclicity was…

Preferential-looking studies suggest that by 2 months of age, infants may have knowledge about some object properties, such as solidity. Manual search studies of toddlers examining these same concepts, however, have failed to provide evidence for the same understanding. Investigators have recently attempted to reconcile this disparity but failed…

Twelve 10-month-old infants were found to smile reliably more often at novel adults than at familiarized adults. These results are consonant with the proposition that the infant's smiles at new persons represent his active exploration of them. (JMB)

When mothers of 12 infants 10 weeks of age displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of joy, anger, and sadness, infants responded differently to each expression. Infants' matching responses to maternal affects were only part of complex but predictable behavioral patterns that indicate meaningful affect states and possibly…

The selection of acts from the stream of infant behavior is examined. Adults (140 mothers, fathers, and other men and women) viewed videotapes of 9-, 15-, and 21-month-old infants. One half noted meaningful acts; the other half noted intentionally communicative acts. Parents selected more meaningful acts than nonparents and agreed more about…

Classified fetuses as accelerators or decelerators based on intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR). Explored the relationship of the classification with gestational age and neonatal behavior in clinically healthy neonates to provide an empirical basis for using FHR in the study of infant behavior. Subjects were 48 "healthy term" or…

Two studies were conducted to (1) develop measure of infants' executive capacity, defined as difference between infants' most sophisticated level of functioning displayed first in free and then in elicited play and (2) to test several hypotheses regarding relationship between these performance and competence measures of child functioning and home…

Investigates the responsiveness of 14- and 20-week-old infants to binocular information using a stereoscopic shadow caster showing an object approaching on a collision course. (Author/SS)

Responsivity to graded tactile stimuli was examined in human newborns in successive epochs of active and quiet sleep. Heart rate and behavior were both used as response indices. (Author/SS)

Examines early differences in mother-infant interaction as a function of infant birth order and birth spacing. Mother and infant behaviors were observed and recorded in the home for a two-hour period. (SS)

Three experiments investigated four-month-old infants' capacity to perceive bimodally specified events by detecting the temporal synchrony of sound bursts with the visable impacts of surfaces. (Author/SS)