Tests semantic integration and frequency tally models of memory among 60 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children. Data from third and fifth graders show different patterns of results for regular and anomalous stories. The true-inference error rate was significantly greater than the error rates for false premise and false-inference sentences in…

Sixty middle-class and 60 lower-class children between the ages of three and five were asked to respond to six types of "wh-questions." Social class significantly affected the overall frequency of correct responses within each age group of children tested. (Author/DB)

The authors conducted a developmental test of the discounting principle (that the role of a given cause in producing effects is reduced if other plausible causes are also present) by showing an animated film to kindergarten and second-grade children. Results conflicted with previous research findings. (Author/DB)

Older Down's syndrome infants responded to the regular reappearance of a squeaky doll with significantly more affective behavior than did younger Down's syndrome infants. Longitudinal research with the younger infants indicated that the onset of affective behavior significantly correlated with mental development and aspects of temperament.…

Determines whether an averaged evoked potential technique using a random-v-repetitive presentation mode could be used to study infant auditory discrimination. Results showed a main effect of presentation mode with shorter latency for random v repetitive. The shortest onset latency was for random stimulus at the fast rate. (Author/DB)

Determines the frequency distribution of Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential variables (BAEP) for premature babies at different stages of development--normal newborns, infants, young children, and adults. The author concludes that the assumption of normality underlying most "standard" statistical analyses can be met for many BAEP measures.…

Assesses preschool children's preferences for eight snack foods and tests procedures to modify preferences for certain foods by having children sort foods according to self-determined categories. Enhanced preferences for target foods generalized to other foods in the same category only for children using semantic sorting categories. (Author/DB)

Examines cues which guide the discovery of simple cause-effect relations, beginning with the properties (suggested by Hume) of temporal precedence, covariation and contiguity; explores variables which can influence simple causal judgments; and discusses developmental evidence regarding inference principles associated with causal schemata.…

Reviews evidence for a developmental sequence in symbolic play and attempts to provide a theoretical rationale for predicting correspondences between symbolic play and early language. (Author/RH)

Seeks to determine (1) whether 11- and 13-month-old infants directed their eye fixations to the referent of an object word said by the mother, and (2) whether there was a developmental shift in responding to object words at these two ages. Controls were set for response bias, stimulus preference, and maternal cuing. (Author/RH)

Differences in response of four- to seven-month-old infants to tachistoscopically presented photographs of two human faces suggest infants were able to remember a frequently presented face from trial to trial and discriminate it from a discrepant, infrequently presented face. Findings suggest event-related brain potential (ERP) responses could…

Human and geometric forms were presented to 12-month-old male infants to determine if infants with a large number of minor physical anomalies would show different habituation than infants with a small number. Differences were found in dishabituation and in response decrement. (Author/RH)

Found that infants who were delivered with their head turned right exhibited a neonatal right supine head orientation and a right-hand preference in visually guided reaching tasks at 19 weeks of age. Contrary to prediction, infants delivered with their head turned left did not exhibit a left-sided preference in either neonatal head position or…

Investigates intersensory interaction between auditory and visual stimulation in newborn infants. Following auditory stimulation, newborns' visual preferences for light patches of different intensity were examined. Results indicate that newborns attend to quantitative variations in stimulation and that these variations reflect both the objective…

Newborns were presented with a tape-recorded rattle sound through a single loudspeaker, through two loudspeakers with one onset leading the other by seven msecs., and through two loudspeakers simultaneously. Newborns turned toward the single source sound, but not toward either of the dual source sounds. (Author/RH)