Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive functioning, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive outcomes. Yet, the exact mechanisms underlying infant habituation and dishabituation are still unclear. To investigate them, we tested 106 8-month-old infants on a classic habituation task and…

Previous research is inconsistent as to whether a more labile (faster-changing) autonomic system confers performance advantages, or disadvantages, in infants and children. To examine this, we presented a stimulus battery consisting of mixed static and dynamic viewing materials to a cohort of 63 typical 12-month-old infants. While viewing the…

This study examines the extent to which iron deficiency in infancy contributes to adverse neurocognitive and educational outcomes in young adulthood directly and indirectly, through its influence on verbal cognition and attention problems in childhood. Young adults (N = 1,000, M age = 21.3 years, 52% female; of Spanish or indigenous descent) from…

American parents and policymakers are failing to acknowledge the significant links between early childhood literacy and academic success. This experimental study investigated the effects of daily reading with 150 infants between the ages of 14 to 28 months throughout a 28-day period. Participants from all economic, demographic, and ethnic…

The low rates of child literacy in South Africa are cause for considerable concern. Research from the developed world shows that parental sharing of picture books with infants and young children is beneficial for child language and cognitive development, as well as literacy skills. We conducted a pilot study to examine whether such benefits might…

Background: The increased interest in social interaction in Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is evident from infancy onwards, together not only with increased empathy, positive interpersonal bias, but also with social disinhibition. Previous studies have described behavioural and emotional problems as being widely represented in WBS. There is…

The study adopted a person-centered approach to examine whether clusters of children could be identified on the basis of temperament profiles assessed on four occasions from infancy to early childhood, and if so whether differing temperament clusters were associated with subsequent differences in behavior problems, social skills, and school…

Data obtained from a group of infants ranging in age from four to seven months did not support the existence of attentional inertia in this age range. (MP)

Uses the habituation paradigm to investigate 3-month-old infants' abilities to recognize and discriminate among the faces of strangers. Infants consistently discriminated between photographs of faces following extensive exposure to one, and recognized something about the face they saw during habituation. Results suggest that similarity influences…

Eleven infants with Down's syndrome and 10 of 11 nonhandicapped infants operated an automatic device which enabled them to choose to listen to nursery rhymes sung or played on musical instruments. Both groups preferred the singing, and the Down's Syndrome infants had much longer response durations for the more complex auditory stimuli. (Author/DB)