Studies 16 three-year-olds' and 17 adults' hedonic reactions to odorants by using a forced-choice procedure embedded in a simple game. Analyses revealed essentially the same pattern of preferences in both groups. In general, the odorant was a much better predictor of its hedonic quality than was the age of the subject. (RJC)

Examines Kail's argument that similarity in developmental speed-of-processing curves for name retrieval and mental rotation indicates that performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks is constrained by growth of a central limiting mechanism. Results suggest that operation of this mechanism is neither sufficient nor necessary to generate the…

Kail responds to Stigler and others' criticisms of Kail's 1986 article and maintains that their criticisms are incorrect or implausible. He agrees with their conclusion that theories of cognitive development must include both domain-specific and general processes. (RJC)

Effects of the Mother-Child Home Program (MCHP) were evaluated with a broad range of measures on cognition, social behavior, and emotion. Findings indicated that children in Bermuda scored above U.S. norms on cognitive tests and were functioning well in the preschool period. The MCHP had few demonstrable effects on any segment of the sample. (RH)

Experimental group mothers reported significantly greater self-confidence and satisfaction with mothering and more favorable perception of infant temperament than did control group mothers. Differences between children on cognitive scores became significant at 36 and 48 months of age, when the experimental group caught up with normal children. (RH)

The results, which contrasted markedly with findings of major group differences at 12 months of age, indicated that by age two no group differences were apparent on any child development, mother-child interaction, or maternal attitude measures, except that preterms were significantly poorer in motor skills than were full-term infants. (RH)

Presented are a literature review and new data on correlates of newborn auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABRs). Concludes that disorders of the central components of the ABR may be more of prenatal than of postnatal origin. The I-V interval had low but reliable correlations with four of 11 Brazelton scale variables. (RH)

In comparison with full-term infants, seven-month-old high-risk preterm infants exhibited deficits in visual recognition memory and in the ability to recruit, sustain, and shift attention. (RH)

Results showed that infants can differentiate dynamic, multimodal expressions as early as five months of age; can distinguish dynamically distinct expressions before similarly animated expressions; and seem to rely more on the voice than the face in making these discriminations. (RH)

Wary infants were more likely than bold infants to reference their mothers when the stimulus, a caged rabbit, was first presented; however, as the exploration period progressed, bold and wary infants referenced equally often. Referencing occurred less often than affective sharing. (RH)

Among low-income women, Black teenage and White adult mothers' social ties to significant others were found to influence parenting skill. Black adult mothers' parenting skill was predicted only by locus of control. (RH)

Findings indicated that (1) when siblings were 24-months-old, their social-emotional behavior displayed some concordance, and maternal behavior was stable with all siblings; (2) significant concordance in siblings' social-emotional behavior was conditioned by stability of maternal behavior; and (3) quality of infant-mother attachment at 12 months…

Results indicated that (1) fathers who were less involved in child care attributed lesser competence to infants than did more involved fathers; (2) fathers generally attributed lesser competence to infants than mothers did; and (3) as fathers' involvement in infant care increased, their attributions became more similar to mothers'. (RH)

Findings indicated that among children between 15 and 35 months observed in a series of play and clean-up tasks, there was a consistent developmental pattern in the extent to which they focused on producing outcomes, and monitored, corrected, and controlled activities, and in the frequency with which they reacted to their outcomes with positive…

Children's ability to produce integrated sequences of discrete behaviors was examined as a function of age and task demands for several behavioral domains. Results are discussed in terms of possible age-related constraints on combinatorial skills that operate at a general, cross-domain level during toddlerhood. (RH)