The present study was designed to examine cross-cultural differences in longitudinal links between infant temperament toddler behavior problems in the U.S. (N= 250) and Russia (N= 129). Profiles of risk/protective temperament factors varied across the two countries, with fewer significant temperament effects observed for the Russian, relative to…

In Experiment 1, it was investigated whether infants process facial identity and emotional expression independently or in conjunction with one another. Eight-month-old infants were habituated to two upright or two inverted faces varying in facial identity and emotional expression. Infants were tested with a habituation face, a switch face, and a…

Three-month-old Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle-class infants were compared regarding learning and retention in a computerized mobile task. Infants achieving a preset learning criterion during reinforcement were tested for immediate and long-term retention measured in terms of an increased response rate after reinforcement and after a…

Two goals guided this study: (a) describe changes in infant fear and anger reactivity from 4 to 16 months and (b) examine the degree to which infant temperament, attentional regulation, and maternal sensitivity predict reactivity trajectories. Participants included 143 mothers and infants (57% male) who visited the laboratory at 4, 8, 12, and 16…

Background: Developing control of attention helps infants to regulate their emotions, and individual differences in attention skills may shape how infants perceive and respond to their socio-emotional environments. This study examined whether the temperamental dimensions of self-regulation and negative emotionality relate to infants' attention…

This study examined both differential patterns and the stability of infants' (N = 70) distress reactivity across mother and stranger arm-restraint conditions when infants were 6 and 9 months of age. Reactivity measures included observational variables for the rise, intensity, and duration of infant distress as well as motor activities associated…

Relations between infant-mother attachment security at 15 months and infants' (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants' tendency to respond to an…

Acoustic properties of the cries of 14 infants were evaluated at both 2 and 4 weeks of age when the infants were lying in a supine position and when they were sitting upright in a car seat. In the upright position, infants' breathing was more rapid and showed less individual variability. The fundamental frequency of their cries increased in the…

Forty infants (mean age 5 months) of depressed mothers and non-depressed mothers were seated in an infant seat and were exposed to four different degrees of animation, including a still-face Raggedy Ann doll (about two-feet tall suspended in front of the infant), the same doll in an animated state talking and head-nodding, an imitative mother and…

The reactions of 24 eight-month-old infants and their mothers were observed when approached in a standard laboratory situation by female strangers whose approach was either fast or slow. Mothers were significantly more "wary" than infants, particularly as the proximity of the stranger increased. (Author/RH)

Young infants use caregivers' emotional expressions to guide their behavior in novel, ambiguous situations. This skill, known as social referencing, likely involves at least 3 separate abilities: (a) looking at an adult in an unfamiliar situation, (b) associating that adult's emotion with the novel situation, and (c) regulating their own…

Investigates psychophysiological reactions of 60 women to an infant's cry and to a control sound. The 30-second pain cry evoked greater cardiac and electrodermal activity than did the control stimulus, although selected groups varied in the nature and extent of their reactions. Both maternal state and experience with infants affected reactions.…

Examined changes in cortisol and behavioral responses in 83 infants. Found that salivary cortisol responses before and after inoculation were high at 2 months, decreased between 2 and 4 months, remained stable, then declined again between 6 and 15 months. Found some evidence that emergence of circadian rhythm in cortisol might be related to early…

While 18 5-month-old infants viewed photographic slides of faces posed in happy, neutral, or angry expressions, a brief acoustic noise burst was presented to elicit the blink component of human startle. It was found that blink size was augmented during the viewing of angry expressions and reduced during viewing of happy expressions. (MDM)