In two sessions, the duration and tempo of toy play of infants and reaction of frustration were measured. Correlations indicated a general relationship between response persistence during play and attempts to escape frustrating situations. (Author/CM)

AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS STIMULUS CONDITIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE INFANT IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE AND THE IMPACT OF THESE STIMULI ON HIS ADAPTIVE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS WAS PRESENTED. INFANTS WERE OBSERVED IN FOUR CHILD-REARING ENVIRONMENTS--RESIDENTIAL, KIBBUTZ, SINGLE-CHILD FAMILY, AND MULTIPLE-CHILD FAMILY. UNDER THEORETICAL ORIENTATION, THESE…

Analyzed effects of modeling and contingent praise on infant imitation of three responses: motor-with-toy, motor-without-toy, or vocal. Found a systematic increase in the percentages of training and probe models matched by the three 12- to 14-month-olds following introduction of model-and-praise treatment conditions. Nonmatching responses did not…

In this study designed to compare the relative pacifying properties of horizontal and vertical rocking, 13 infants (mean age--58 days) were each tested on two subsequent days. The rocking device was a cradle that could be manipulated to produce side-to-side rocking similar to a commercial cradle or up-and-down rocking. In its up-and-down mode, the…

Measures of active sleep, quiet sleep, sucking, crying, body size and gestational age were factor analyzed for 137 normal newborns at 2 days of age. The results yielded 3 stable factors: reactivity-irritability, maturity, and reflexive and discriminative sucking. (JMB)

Longitudinal data concerning fear responses in 30 boys and 30 girls observed from ages one month to 8 1/2 years suggest that in males--but not in females--a predisposition to a particular level of fearfulness is set by events that occurred before 6 months of age. (Author/MG)

An exploration of the clinical usefulness of the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Scale was made. A specific pediatric problem was studied, i.e., a baby born to a heroin-addicted mother taking methadone. The control sample was a population of 41 babies who were part of a larger study. Both methadone and control infants were tested between 48 and 72…

Selected vocal and gestural imitation items were presented to twenty-four 8-, 14- and 20-month-old boys and girls in an elicited task situation. Both vocal and gestural imitation increased with age, although for each age group there was significantly more gestural than vocal imitation. (BD)

The influence of age, sex, representational detail of objects (prototypicality) and adult play suggestions on children's progression of pretend behaviors was studied. A checklist was developed and utilized for coding the responses of 20 children (10 males, 10 females), to objects judged to be high and low prototypical by 12 adults. Children ranged…

Theories and descriptions of various infant fear behaviors are presented in this paper. Five examples of fear are given: (1) learned fear, in which the infant associates some unpleasant action with an agent, (2) unlearned fear, in which the infant experiences an intense sensory phenomena such as a loud noise, (3) stranger anxiety, (4) fear caused…

This study compares interactions between infants and parents to interactions between infants and strangers. Infants from 2 weeks to 6 months of age were taped in face-to-face interactions with unfamiliar male and female adults. Tapes of parent-infant interactions were available from a prior study. Specific infant and adult behaviors were coded and…

An experiment was performed to show that infants perceive auditory and visual stimuli within a common space and that they perceive the sound as an attribute of the visual object. Subjects were 22 infants aged 3 to 5 months. Each infant was presented with a toy that moved in a small arc from side to side of a small window at the rate of one arc per…