Communication in mother-infant dyads and mother-infant-sibling triads was examined to determine how variation in the number of people and type of activity affect the ways language is used by all participants. Homebased observations were made of 16 first- and 16 later-born children when they were between 18 and 23 months old. (Author/BN)

Maternal involvement effects on symbolic play development in toddlers were investigated. Sixteen mother-child dyads were observed at bimonthly intervals in a free-play setting during the period from 20 to 28 months of age. The complexity and length of play episodes increased when the mother was available to play with the child. (Author/BN)

Parental responses to grammatically correct and incorrect child utterances were observed in free-play interactions of two groups, each containing 10 parents and their language learning children. Group 1: 21-26 months old, with MLU's between 2 and 2.5 morphemes. Group 2: 34-40 months old, with MLU's between 3 and 3.5 morphemes. (Author/BN)

Examination of the nature and quality of deaf children's referential messages to their mothers, the outcome of such messages, and the reformulations of "failed" messages. Deaf children 6-10 years old, from oral or bimodal educational programs, were tested in two tasks involving identification and description of a picture. (Author/BN)

The speech behavior of 14 depressed and 18 nondepressed mothers during conversations with their 3-year-old children was examined using the Automatic Vocal Transaction Analyzer. Mother-child dyads were observed in three settings for five minutes each: while mother was preparing lunch, during lunch, and while waiting for a doctor. (Author/BN)

Two studies were conducted to determine if children would be able to locate and revise message problems in simple referential communication tasks. Study 1: 26 first graders and 19 third graders were asked to help "fix up" uninformative written messages. Study 2: 52 first graders and 44 second graders were asked to evaluate and revise problematic…

Assessed 3- to 7-year-old children's sensitivity to logical necessity by contrasting performance in insufficient and sufficient information conditions. A search task used in Experiments 1 and 2 allowed children to search for additional information in insufficient conditions. A judgement condition used in Experiment 2 required a "can't tell"…

Four experiments studied 4- to 6-year-old children's understanding of inferential reasoning as a source of knowledge. To assess understanding that knowledge of relevant premises leads to knowledge of the conclusion, children had to judge the knowledge of another person, who was presented to the child as being aware of two premises. (Author/BN)

Investigated the influence of the child's knowledge base on symbolic play in terms of event schemas. Pretend play of 10 mother-child (ages 24 to 29 months) dyads was observed in novel and free play contexts. Play was examined for thematic content, self-other relations, substitute/imaginary objects, action integration, and planfulness. (Author/BN)

The effects of two imagery training procedures on pictograph sentence memory were examined in 66 kindergarten prereaders. Group 1 was taught in four sessions to read the pictographs, then imagine the available toys acting out the sentence meaning. Group 2 received the first two sessions as above followed by two sessions involving a modified…

Effects of the importance of plot-relevant information on 4- to 6-year-old children's memory for four televised stories was examined in two experiments. Free recall and cued recall of idea units rated for importance by college students were assessed. Recognition following failed cued recall was also assessed. (Author/BN)

The study attemped to link cognitive and social problems seen in girls with Turner syndrome by assessing the girls' ability to process affective cues. Seventeen 9- to 17-year-old girls diagnosed with Turner syndrome were compared to a matched control group on a task which required interpretation of affective intention from facial expression.…

The short-term reliability and long-term stability of visual habituation and dishabituation in infancy were assessed in a sample of 186 infants from four age groups (3-, 4-, 7- and 9-month-olds) seen for two within-age sessions, and in a sample of 69 infants seen longitudinally at 3, 4, 7, and 9 months of age. (Author/BN)

Tested the model which posits that heart-rate deceleration and respiratory sinus arrhythmia are indices of infant attention. Infants studied cross-sectionally at 14, 20, and 26 weeks of age were presented with complex patterns on a TV screen which were accompanied by an "interrupting stumulus". (Author/BN)

Sixty-five infants (mean age of 111 days) who failed to complete a two-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis was performed. (Author/BN)