Four-month-old infants extract ordinal information in number-based and size-based visual sequences, provided that magnitude changes involve increasing relations. Here the ontogenetic origins of ordinal processing were investigated between 2018 and 2022 by testing newborns' discrimination of reversal in numerosity (Experiment 1, N = 22 White, 11…

Investigated the possibility that evidence of frequency discrimination might be found when the experimental procedures involved the conjugate reinforcement of nonnutritive sucking. (SDH)

This study investigated vowel discrimination in 8-week-old infants. Using a nonnutritive, high-amplitude sucking measure in a habituation-dishabituation paradigm. (Author/SB)

Two experiments examined six-month-olds' ability to form an abstract containment category. Results indicated that, after habituation to object pairs in a containment relation, infants looked reliably longer at an example of an unfamiliar versus familiar containment relation, indicating that they could form a categorical representation of…

Two experiments explored how infants learn to form an abstract categorical representation of support (i.e., on) when habituated to few (i.e., 2) or many (i.e., 6) examples of the relation. When habituated to 2 pairs of objects in a support relation, 14-month-olds, but not 10-month-olds, formed the abstract spatial category (i.e., generalized the…

Examines the interrelationships of task performances and developmental changes of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds. Significant developmental changes were observed on transposition, cue interference, and spatial memory. The pattern of intercorrelations between tasks suggested a high degree of correspondence across tasks. (ST)

Investigated early determinants of infants' self--other discrimination when presented with a live image of themselves or another person that was either contingent or contingent with delay. Found that infants 4 months and older perceived and acted differently when facing the image of themselves compared to that of another; 9-month-olds showed more…

An extension of discrimination-learning theory based on the inhibition of stimulus intensity was proposed and supported as a mechanism of cognitive development. Among 48 normal and 37 educable mentally retarded children the predominant category of transistional children conserved at a low level of stimulus intensity but failed to conserve at a…

Two studies examined whether infants' category discrimination in an object-examination task was based solely on an ad hoc analysis of perceptual similarities among the experimental stimuli. Findings indicated that 10- to 11-month- olds' responses varied systematically only with the presence of a category change, but not with the degree of…

Reports on two studies during which 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were interviewed about three different types of regularities or rules: social conventions, physical laws, and logical necessities. Shows that older children made more distinctions between social and nonsocial items than did younger children. (HOD)