Maternal language in infancy.

Observations of 36 preterm infants and their English-speaking mothers suggest that maternal language to the infant varies as a function of the age and ordinal position of the infant and maternal education. The relationship between maternal language at 1 mo of age and the mother's verbal style to her older infant allows for early identification of maternal language input styles and, therefore, has important implications for mother–infant intervention programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interplay between language, gesture, and affect during communicative transition: A dynamic systems approach.

From a dynamic systems perspective, transition points in development are times of increased instability, during which behavioral patterns are susceptible to temporary decoupling. This study investigated the impact of the vocabulary spurt on existing patterns of communicative coordination. Eighteen typically developing infants were videotaped at home 1 month before, at, and after the vocabulary spurt. Infants were identified as spurters if they underwent a discrete phase transition in vocabulary development (marked by an inflection point), and compared with a group of nonspurters whose word-learning rates followed a trajectory of continuous change. Relative to surrounding sessions, there were significant reductions in overall coordination of communicative behaviors and in words produced in coordination at the vocabulary spurt session for infants who experienced more dramatic vocabulary growth. In contrast, nonspurters demonstrated little change across sessions. Findings underscore the importance of transitions as opportunities for observing processes of developmental change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication between deaf children and their hearing mothers: the role of language, gesture, and vocalizations

In the present longitudinal study, 20 deaf and 20 hearing children were observed during free play with their hearing mothers when the children were 22 months and 3 years of age. Compared to hearing children, deaf children were severely language delayed, with deaf 3-year-olds using less language (speech or sign) than hearing 22-month-olds. Deaf children communicated primarily through nonlinguistic vocalizations, with increasing use of gesture from 22 months to 3 years of age. Although mothers of deaf children used more visual communication than mothers of hearing children, they still primarily communicated through speech. In addition, deaf children did not visually attend to much of their mothers' communication. Therefore, deaf children received much less communication than hearing children. These results suggest that intervention efforts should be focused on increasing the quantity of perceived linguistic input by the child.     

Precursors of reading skill from infancy to first grade in Finnish: Continuity and change in a highly inflected language.

The course of language acquisition from infancy to public primary school was followed in a sample of 56 Finnish children to examine precursors to reading at first grade. Structural equation modeling of continuity suggested effects from growth in early vocabulary to mastery of inflectional forms at preschool age. The early language directly influenced early phonological awareness (PA) and only indirectly influenced later development in PA and word reading. The course of development in PA progressed from detecting larger multiphonemic units toward recognizing and producing phonemes in words, which, in turn, were positively associated with differences in producing new words by deleting and blending phonemes at kindergarten age. Including word reading before school entry levelled out the influence of the concurrent phonemic awareness factor on reading at first grade. Hence, in a highly inflected language with a transparent orthography, the pathway to reading consisted of skills learned in succession, the last phase being characterized by simultaneous development involving phonemic awareness and emerging reading skill. The finding led to the conclusion that, in addition to universal routes, language- and culture-specific routes to literacy must be acknowledged when searching for the precursors to reading at school age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The importance of gesture in children's spatial reasoning.

On average, men outperform women on mental rotation tasks. Even boys as young as 4 1/2 perform better than girls on simplified spatial transformation tasks. The goal of our study was to explore ways of improving 5-year-olds' performance on a spatial transformation task and to examine the strategies children use to solve this task. We found that boys performed better than girls before training and that both boys and girls improved with training, whether they were given explicit instruction or just practice. Regardless of training condition, the more children gestured about moving the pieces when asked to explain how they solved the spatial transformation task, the better they performed on the task, with boys gesturing about movement significantly more (and performing better) than girls. Gesture thus provides useful information about children's spatial strategies, raising the possibility that gesture training may be particularly effective in improving children's mental rotation skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of pointing as a social gesture.

Determined the age at which infants call interesting objects to another's attention by pointing, related their ability to follow another's pointing to their own use of the gesture, and compared the uses of pointing and reaching. 48 Ss aged 10–16 mo were studied with their mothers in a setting containing 6 special stimulus objects. By 12.5 mo, most Ss pointed, usually vocalizing or looking at their partner while pointing. The communicative function of the gesture was further established by the partner's response of verbal acknowledgment and looking at the object. The ability to follow another's points seemed to be acquired before Ss began to point but improved with their own use of the gesture. Reaching partook of the behaviors associated with pointing but developed earlier and decreased as pointing increased. Data show that at an early age Ss exhibit an elementary form of the ability to take the visual perspective of others. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning about tools in infancy.

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the bowl did not fit through the hole in the box, but the handle did) and even though the experimenter demonstrated a bowl-grasp. In contrast, infants used a novel tool flexibly and grasped both sides equally often. In Experiment 2, infants received training using the novel tool for a particular function; 3 groups of infants were trained to use the tool differently. Later, infants' performance was facilitated on tasks that required infants to grasp the part of the tool they were trained to grasp. The results suggest that (a) infants' prior experiences with tools are important to understanding subsequent tool use, and (b) rather than learning about tool function (e.g., hammering), infants learn about which part of the tool is meant to be held, at least early in their exposure to a novel tool. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory frequency discrimination in infancy.

Investigated the ability of 14 5–8 mo olds and 5 college students to detect changes in the frequency of pure tones. A head turn for visual reinforcement technique was used to obtain difference thresholds for infants and adults at 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 Hz. With signals presented at 70 db above adult detection thresholds, infants reliably detected frequency changes on the order of 2%, whereas adults detected changes of about 1%. Data confirm previous findings indicating that infants can distinguish different frequencies and can make relatively fine discriminations. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object perception and object-directed reaching in infancy.

Conducted 5 experiments to investigate the effects of spatial and kinetic information on infants' perception of and reaching for objects. 65 20–23 wk old infants were presented with a small object, a larger object, and a background surface arranged in depth so that all were within reaching distance. Patterns of reaching for this display were observed, while spatial and kinetic properties of the display were varied. Results show that when the Ss reached for the display, they did not reach primarily for the surfaces that were nearer, smaller, or presented in motion. Ss reached, instead, for groups of surfaces that formed a unit that was spatially connected and/or that moved as a whole relative to its surroundings. Ss reached for the nearer of 2 objects as a distinct unit when the objects were separated in depth or when one object moved relative to the other. They reached for the 2 objects as a single unit when the objects were adjacent or when they moved together. The reaching patterns provide evidence that the Ss organized each display into the kind of units that adults call objects: manipulable units with internal coherence and external boundaries. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Geometric complexity and object search in infancy.

In four experiments we investigated the role of geometric path type in infants' ability to make spatial inferences about the location of a hidden object after they themselves had been moved through space. Nine-month-old infants were moved along geometrically simple paths of rotation (Experiments 1 and 2) or translation (Experiment 3) or along geometrically complex paths of combined rotation and translation (Experiment 4). In all but the fourth experiment, infants were able to retrieve an object hidden before they were moved, as long as the object was not located behind them at test time. Direct comparisons among the conditions showed that moving infants along geometrically simple paths led to significantly better performance than moving them along geometrically complex paths. We found the length of a path, the time needed to traverse it, and the likelihood of fixation of the target to be unrelated to the infants' performance. These findings are discussed in the context of theories of the development of spatial knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachments beyond infancy.

Attachment theory is extended to pertain to developmental changes in the nature of children's attachments to parents and surrogate figures during the years beyond infancy, and to the nature of other affectional bonds throughout the life cycle. Various types of affectional bonds are examined in terms of the behavioral systems characteristic of each and the ways in which these systems interact. Specifically, the following are discussed: (a) the caregiving system that underlies parents' bonds to their children, and a comparison of these bonds with children's attachments to their parents; (b) sexual pair-bonds and their basic components entailing the reproductive, attachment, and caregiving systems; (c) friendships both in childhood and adulthood, the behavioral systems underlying them, and under what circumstances they may become enduring bonds; and (d) kinship bonds (other than those linking parents and their children) and why they may be especially enduring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multisensory exploration and object individuation in infancy.

Recent research indicates that by 4.5 months, infants use shape and size information as the basis for individuating objects but that it is not until 11.5 months that they use color information for this purpose. The present experiments investigated the extent to which infants' sensitivity to color information could be increased through select experiences. Five experiments were conducted with 10.5- and 9.5-month-olds. The results revealed that multimodal (visual and tactile), but not unimodal (visual only), exploration of the objects prior to the individuation task increased 10.5-month-olds' sensitivity to color differences. These results suggest that multisensory experience with objects facilitates infants' use of color information when individuating objects. In contrast, 9.5-month-olds did not benefit from the multisensory procedure; possible explanations for this finding are explored. Together, these results reveal how an everyday experience--combined visual and tactile exploration of objects--can promote infants' use of color information as the basis for individuating objects. More broadly, these results shed light on the nature of infants' object representations and the cognitive mechanisms that support infants' changing sensitivity to color differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive learning in infancy and early childhood.

The stress on genetic factors in early cognitive development has led to the amassing of a considerable body of normative data. However, there has been little interest in determining the scope and complexity of learning possible during the initial phases of development. Research literature and theoretical orientations are presented to show the potential importance of studying early cognitive learning. (201 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Duration illusion and auditory grouping in infancy.

Extended previous research on perceptual grouping in infancy (Thorpe, Trehub, Morrongiello, & Bull, 1988). Infants' detection of temporal increments to silent intervals between groups of tones was compared with their detection of comparable silent increments within groups of tones. Ss were presented with standard 6-tone sequences, with the first 3 tones differing from the last 3 in harmonic structure, frequency, or intensity, and contrasting sequences with increments of 80 or 100 ms to the silent interval between the 3rd and 4th tone (XXX OOO, between groups) or between the 4th and 5th tone (XXXO OO, within group). Infants discriminated temporally altered sequences from the standard only when the increments occurred within a group. The authors conclude that perceptual grouping processes are operative in infancy and that infants perceive the silent increments between groups of sounds as longer than identical intervals within a group, as do adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of symmetry in infancy.

Symmetrical visual patterns, particularly vertically symmetrical ones, are preferred and processed faster than asymmetrical patterns by adults. Results of 3 experiments with 61 4- and 12-mo-olds show that (a) 4-mo-old infants showed no preference for symmetry, but they processed vertically symmetrical patterns more efficiently than horizontally symmetrical or asymmetrical ones; and (b) by 12 mo, infants preferred vertical symmetry to horizontal symmetry and asymmetry. Thus, preference for symmetry seems to develop late, whereas recognition of vertical symmetry is innate, matures very quickly, or is learned very early. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk in infancy: Origins and implications.

This article focuses on biological risks that can adversely influence development during infancy and later. In the first part of the article, the origins of risks and their potential consequences are discussed relative to prepregnancy, prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods. Epidemiological data are presented. The second part of the article addresses issues pertaining to assessment of infant development and interventions provided for infants whose development may be in jeopardy. Finally, goals for prevention are highlighted and the need for a nationally derived data base on risk and outcomes is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Producing and processing self-propelled motion in infancy.

Three experiments investigated 5- through 8-month-olds' ability to encode self-propelled and caused motion and examined whether processing of motion onset changes when crawling begins. Infants were habituated (Experiments 1 and 2) or familiarized (Experiment 3) with simple causal and noncausal launching events. They then viewed the caused-to-move and self-propelled objects from the events both stationary and side-by-side, and their preferential looking to the objects was assessed. Results revealed that 5- and 6-month-olds displayed a different pattern of looking than did 8-month-olds. More notably, noncrawling 7-month-olds and 7-month-olds with crawling experience also demonstrated such a differential pattern. These data suggest that processing of motion onset changes in concert with the commencement of self-locomotion. Findings are discussed in reference to the mechanisms underlying infants' ability to recognize self-propelled motion and the scope of the relationship between action production and action perception in infancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral reactivity and approach-withdrawal bias in infancy.

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acoustic-optical correspondences and auditory-visual coordination in infancy.

Research on auditory-visual coordination is reviewed, and the following hypothesis is elaborated: The roots of perceptual development are biologically determined perceptual functions that serve information gathering and information processing. Early in infancy, these functions are influenced both by spatial and temporal factors and by formal correspondences between optical and acoustic information; more specifically, spatiotemporal properties constrain information gathering, and optical-acoustic correspondences facilitate exploration and processing. As a result, the infant learns the association between particular acoustic and optical aspects of objects and events. A formal presentation of spatial and temporal properties is outlined. (French abstract) (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating psychology and politics.

Comments on the article "A house divided? The psychology of red and blue America" by D. C. Seyle and M. L. Newman (see record 2006-11202-001). Seyle and Newman concluded that the red and blue metaphor is inaccurate and proposed a purple America strategy to better convey that the majority of people do not align themselves with political extremes. There is interdisciplinary agreement on this. Although not cited by Seyle and Newman, the findings by Professor Fiorina of Stanford University were reported by the APA Monitor on Psychology in its coverage of the 2005 APA State Leadership Conference (Murray Law, 2005). In contrast to their social psychological analysis, Seyle and Newman were incorrect in concluding that "[a]s psychologists, we are not in a position to change either the elements of the American political system that may spur this conflict or even the decisions made by pundits, politicians, and reporters about the terms they choose to use in political discussion" (p. 579). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)