Provides data indicating that development occurs in cycles, with behavioral competencies appearing and developing and then disappearing only to reappear again in a more complex form at a later age. Data on conservation and auditory-manual coordination in infancy are used to support this theory. (ED)

Examined associations among parents' characteristics, prenatal expectations for and postpartum perceptions of infant temperament, and observers' ratings of temperament. Found that parents shared expectations for infant's emotional expressivity but differed in expectation for predictability and adaptability. Parent's postpartum ratings of…

Investigated developmental change in symbolic representational ability by examining infants' imitation of vocalizations, words, visible motor actions, and nonvisible motor behaviors at ages 10, 13, 17, and 21 months. Results revealed a pattern of increasing imitation, supporting the view that a domain-independent representational capacity develops…

Describes characteristics of the attachment behavior of 10 infants blind from birth. Behaviors studied were smiling, discriminating tactile behaviors, stranger avoidance and distress, and separation and reunion behaviors. (BRT)

This report is a portion of a study of attachment behavior: behavior promoting contact and/or proximity of an infant to his mother figure. This report deals specifically with crying, response to brief everyday separations from the mother and to her return, and behavior relevant to physical contact with her. The subjects, 26 infant-mother pairs…

Authors look at a range of variation in experience of five- to six-month-old infants on a concrete behavioral level, and conceptualize these discrete behaviors. (Authors/MB)

Examined predictive validity of measures of infant habituation and later aspects of temperament. Found babies who habituated sooner (fewer trials to criterion) at five months of age and had fewer peak fixations during habituation were rated by mothers as more active, intense, and negative in mood, and less persistent and adaptable. Age differences…

Argues that this volume's Sanson, Prior, and Kyrios study on the overlap between measures of temperament and psychopathy is too narrowly framed. Maintains that there appears to be a pattern of linkage between specific early temperament scales and specific kinds of later behavior problems. (Author/BB)

Examined the possibility that auditory stimuli with properties of adult-to-infant speech are more detectable in a noisy ambient environment than ones that resemble adult-to-adult speech. Findings suggests that properties that characterize adult-to-infant speech may compensate for young infants' low-frequency deficits and therefore facilitate the…

Rejects the neuronal fatigue, or selective adaptation, hypothesis of young infant habituation. Holds that studies cited by Dannemiller and Banks do not support the inferences of selective adaptation. Rejects the hypothetical neurophysiological mechanism of neuronal fatigue. Proposes that studies do not indicate that young infants' visual cortical…

Temperament development was studied in 39 full-term small-for-gestational-age infants and 30 full-term appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. Temperament was measured at 4, 8, and 12 months of age using a behavioral assessment procedure and questionnaire ratings. Findings indicated that restricted fetal growth negatively affects infant…

Reports on development of a model for studying communicative competencies using naturalistic observations of specific behaviors. Discussion focuses on ways mothers and toddlers train each other to be successively more effective in their relationships. (ED)