In two experiments, the majority of 21 newborn infants who were maintained in an alert state consistently turned their heads toward a continuous sound source presented 90 degrees from midline. For most infants, this orientation response was rather slow, taking median latencies of 2.5 seconds to begin and 5.5 seconds to end. (JMB)

The development of the ability to extend the hand across the body midline to contact a visually presented object was examined in 48 normal, full-term, 9- to 20-week-old infants. One of the infant's arms was restrained while the behavior of the contralateral, unrestrained arm was observed. (JMB)

The capacity of newborn infants for smooth-pursuit eye movements in single-target tracking and in optokinetic nystagmus to a moving striped field was examined utilizing DC electrooculography. (JMB)

A data analysis procedure for testing the hypothesis that one task is a developmental prerequisite for another task is illustrated. The procedure was applied to new data on the acquisition of conservation concepts to test the hypothesis that synthesis, visual-scanning skills, and memory capacity are prerequisites of conservation mastery. (JMB)

Children aged 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years observed events consisting of the removal of crucial support blocks from simple block structures. The child's anticipation ability was measured by the degree of surprise observed on certain trick trials in which concealed magnets prevented the expected collapse. (JMB)

Two studies conducted with children in kindergarten and grades 1-3 tested the hypothesis that the attribution of manipulative intentions to the donor underlies the tendency to discount intrinsic interest in the presence of rewards. The children made attributions for the behavior of story characters who had been offered a reward for task…

Three paper-and-pencil formal operations tests were administered to groups of eighth graders and adults. These measures provided scores that indicated each subject's level of reasoning for three second-order operations: combinations, proportionality, and propositional logic. (JMB)

In experiment 1, 48 first-grade children were presented one of four elaboration strategies or labeling instructions during a single study trial and then recalled 16 paired associates. In experiment 2, 32 first-grade children were trained over a four-day period in the use of an interrogative elaboration strategy or received labeling instructions.…

After learning to discriminate tactually between a convexity and a concavity, 101 children aged three to eight years were presented a photograph of the convexity and the concavity. The relevance of egocentric, environmental, and lighting-specified frames of reference was manipulated by changing the position of the subject's head, rotating the…

Reports the findings of a series of long-term maintenance tests and a generalization phase given to a group of educable mentally retarded children more than one year after they were trained to use self-checking routines for estimating test readiness. (JMB)

Reports an experiment with five-year-old children which tested the hypothesis that a change in affect between input and test interferes with performance in a nominally noncued free recall test but not with performance on a cued recall test. (JMB)

Two experiments investigated the process by which children encode briefly presented spatial positions. First, third, and fifth graders were asked to judge whether a test dot occupied the same position on a card as any one of a number of dots which had been presented tachistoscopically. (JMB)

Tests Piaget's assertions regarding compensation, identity, and conservation using a modified replication of Piaget and Taponier's classic study of liquid conservation. A total of 96 children in kindergarten and first grade were presented with a sequence of anticipation-of-liquid-conservation, anticipation-of-water-levels, and standard…

Seeks to demonstrate that age differences in the interpretation of moral judgment stimulus stories can reliably predict differences in patterns of moral evaluations. Also attempts to characterize the nature of these age-related interpretation differences. Stimulus stories represented each of Heider's levels of responsibility and varied in outcome…