This study provides evidence of sex-typed behavior in the spontaneous play of infants between 9 1/2 and 15 1/2 months. Eight boys and eight girls at 9 1/2, 11 1/2, 13 1/2, and 15 1/2 months were observed during 15 minutes of free play with a variety of realistic toys equally divided into male, female, and neutral categories. Stereotypical,…

The data from this study shows that fathers spend little time vocalizing to their infants and that the number of interactions varies by time of day, age and sex of infant and the kind of activity occurring during the interaction. (Author/WY)

The effects of children's gender perceptions of infants as "like me" or "not like me" on their behavioral interest in infants were experimentally manipulated. Thirty-seven boys and 34 girls at two age levels were observed in 10-minute encounters with unfamiliar seven-month-old infants and their mothers. (Author/RH)

Observational measures of monozygotic and dizygotic twins' reactions to simulations of distress in others were obtained when the twins were 14 and 20 months old. Components of concern for others increased with age. Girls scored higher than boys on most measures. There was modest evidence for heritability of empathy. (BC)

Familiarity of the setting, the mother's presence, sex of the stranger, and the distance separating the infant and the stranger were varied to examine the expression of stranger fear in 32 infants from 6 to 11 months of age. (Author/JMB)

Compares older and newer methods of studying language acquisition in younger and older toddlers in an attempt to explain discrepancies in the literature concerning whether girls are more advanced than boys in language acquisition. (SS)

Temperament was measured at ages four and eight months on a sample of infants representing the five Holingshead social classes. A typology very similar to the New York Longitudinal Study's "easy/difficult" axis was found in both age groups. No influences of social class and gender differences on temperament were found. (CI)

Reviews research findings concerning the consistency and extent of sex differences in responsiveness to the young, in order to determine the nature of the conditions under which sex differences are found. (MP)

This study attempts to evaluate procedures for studying hemispheric differences in newborn human infants and to determine what acoustic characteristics of speech sounds will trigger a left hemisphere (LH) repsonse. Within 48 hours of birth, 14 neonates were individually administered five aural stimuli which comprised two speech syllables, two…

Responsiveness to babies was observed in parents of children of different ages. Stage of family life cycle affected women's responsivity but not men's. New mothers displayed a heightened generalized interest in babies which is optimally timed and functional in terms of sex differentiated role requirements. (Author/GC)

Using a visual conditional stimulus and an auditory unconditional stimulus in a trace procedure, the heart rate conditioning of 16 infants ranging in age from two to seven months was evaluated. (MP)

Reports results of an investigation of the effects of age, sex, and experience with peers on infants' peer-directed behavior. (Author/BH)

Adults (either mothers or strangers) presented unfamiliar foods to 1- to 4-year-olds individually in their homes. Childrens' acceptance of the food was examined when the adults were eating and when they were simply offering the food. It was concluded that social facilitation could account for the data obtained. (Author/GO)

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether a general perceptual model developed by Vitz and Todd (1971), capable of dealing with multiple determinants of attending, is useful for understanding infant attending. The model, previously used in research with adults, assumes that perception can be represented as a stochastic sampling…