Infants avoid touching plants. Here we examine for the first time whether infants are also reluctant to touch plant foods. We hypothesized that infants would avoid plant foods because food neophobia--the avoidance of novel foods--is particularly strong for fruits and vegetables. However, we predicted that infants would avoid processed plant foods…

From a perceptual learning perspective, infants use social information (like gaze direction) in a similar way as other information in our physical environment (like object movements) to specify action possibilities. In the current study, we assumed that infants are able to learn an affordance upon observing an adult failing to act out that…

The atypical behaviour of preterm infants can elicit stress in fathers and influence their ability to perceive and interpret infants' cues. This study investigated whether fathers of moderately and late preterm infants were more stressed than fathers of term infants. In a randomised controlled trial, we also studied the effect of the Mother-Infant…

The current study tested whether the purely amodal cue of contingency elicits orientation following behavior in 8-month-old infants. We presented 8-month-old infants with automated objects without human features that did or did not react contingently to the infants' fixations recorded by an eye tracker. We found that an object's occasional…

Tests the hypothesis that infants may learn to respond to cues which consistently specify the ultimate location of an object which is displaced while invisible. Subjects were 96 nine-month-old infants. (MP)

In the studies presented here, infants' understanding of others' attention was assessed when gaze direction cues were not diagnostic. Fourteen-, 18- and 24-month-olds witnessed an adult look to the side of an object and express excitement. In 1 experimental condition this object was new for the adult because she was not present while the child and…

Six infants were filmed at 15 and 30 weeks of age while alone and in the presence of an adult (mother or stranger) who interacted with the infant or remained passive. Signal detection analysis of ratings made by judges showed that infant behavior at both ages varied in accord with whether or not an adult was present. (Author/DB)

The authors examined the relationship between newborn neurobehavioral profiles and the characteristics of early mother-infant interaction in Nagasaki, Japan. The authors administered the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS; T. B. Brazelton & J. K. Nugent, 1995) in the newborn period and the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching…