A total of 192 high-risk infants and 85 full-term healthy newborn infants were administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. A principal component analysis was performed separately for the high-risk and control infants. Results suggest that the high-risk infant is similar to the normal infant in behavioral development, especially when…

Infants ranging in age from six months to eight months were shown repeated instances of real object movement-disappearance-reappearance. Results suggest that the key changes in early cognitive development rest primarily upon the infant's gradual adaptation of old responses through encounters with new events--rather than upon the acquisition of…

Evaluates the degree to which the social-referencing perspective provides a valid explanation of some features of infant behavior. (MP)

Explored patterns of emotional communication in 70 mother-infant dyads, emphasizing both mother and child roles in affect regulation. Display of maternal positive and negative affects decreased with age; child affects were unchanged. Maternal sensitivity was associated with maternal matching of son's affects and daughter's creation of shared…

Contending that developmental disability is defined by cognitive and affective performance as well as hazardous biological events, the authors consider multiple factors as cumulative in placing an infant at risk for future developmental disability. A risk scoring system based on biological and behavioral factors in an additive manner is presented.…

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)

Author discusses the different contexts in which the concept of state is used, drawing on examples from her own research with newborns. (MB)

Deals with sex differences in three types of nonelicited newborn behaviors, easily observable with the unaided eye: (1) states, (2) activity levels, and (3) several discrete behaviors such as spontaneous behavior and specific motor patterns. Subjects were 289 male and 272 female Black infants. (MP)

Examines strategies for studying individual differences in infant behavior from the standpoints of the distinction between individual differences and developmental function and the need to study change with multivariate techniques. These themes are applied to the study of mental development, behavior genetics, temperament, and attachment. (RJC)

Observed infants' manual gestures while playing with mothers. Infants were more likely than mothers to request objects and less likely to respond to requests for objects. Vocalization accompanying requests increased with age. Infant gazing was most likely during offers that infants initiated without preceding maternal request. Unsolicited offers…

Infant imitation is considered a significant component of social, cognitive, and language development. Observation of 20 infants and their mothers in 2 naturalistic settings at 4 separate ages revealed dyads' imitation and matching in vocal, verbal and action behaviors. Verbal matching increased over the second year, suggesting relation of dyads'…

Clarifies issues involved in use of heart rate as index of newborn attentional responsivity by reviewing related studies and concluding that heart rate variability can be used in studying attentional responsivity state, and intra-individual and individual variables. (ED)

Examines imitation of motor, vocal, and verbal behaviors by infants 10 to 16 months old. The imitation battery consisted of 21 behaviors in four motor and two vocal categories. The familiarity or novelty of individual behaviors was assessed through maternal interviews. Results are discussed in terms of Uzgaris' (1981) conceptualization of two…