Two experiments investigated whether 5-month olds would look longer at rotating "drawbridge" appearing to violate physical laws because they knew it was causally impossible. Findings indicated that infants' longer gaze at 180-degree rotations was due to simple perceptual preference for more motion, challenging Baillargeon's (1987) claim…

Examines, in two experiments, 5-month-old infants' sensitivity to auditory-visual specification of distance and direction of movement. One experiment presented two films with soundtracks in either a match or mismatch condition; the second showed the two films side-by-side with a single soundtrack appropriate to one. Infants demonstrated visual…

Measures of prenatal exposure in 123 infants to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cord serum PCB level, and maternal report of contaminated fish consumption predicted less preference for a novel stimulus on Fagan's test of visual recognition memory (VRM) at 7 months. Preference for novelty decreased in a dose-dependent fashion and postnatal…

From birth, infants prefer to look at faces that engage them in direct eye contact. In adults, direct gaze is known to modulate the processing of faces, including the recognition of individuals. In the present study, we investigate whether direction of gaze has any effect on face recognition in four-month-old infants. Four-month infants were shown…

This study investigated infants' differential responding to novel and familiar stimuli after familiarization in a different sensory modality. Results showed that infants gain information about the shape of objects from their oral experience with them and that this information can be transferred to the visual modality. (Author/JMB)

Four experiments assessed converging aspects of four-month-old infants' perceptions of visual patterns. Results together corroborate and extend previous findings that vertical symmetry has a special status in early perceptual development and that infants can perceive pattern wholes. (Author/AS)

Three experiments are described which relate to models of infant visual preferences and to the ways in which preferences can be modified or created by habituation. Results suggest that the Banks and Salapatek's contrast sensitivity model can be a powerful predictor of preferential looking in newborns and that preferences based on experience can be…

In three experiments, nine-month-old infants were trained to fixate on a particular feature in a pair of stimuli that varied along three dimensions. In a fourth experiment, infants were trained to fixate on a stimulus compound until reaching a learning criterion. Infants' discrimination learning under these conditions implied an ability to attend…

Considers the debate about learning as based on conditioning or cognitive processes. Explores historical episodes in this debate in which issues were resolved first in favor of conditioning theory and then increasingly in favor of cognitive processes. Interprets the study by Coldren and Colombo reported in this monograph (PS 522 654) as a…

Compared food texture preferences during infancy and toddlerhood. Found that infants displayed more negative expressions and head and body movements in response to complex textures than to simple textures. Toddlers displayed more positive head and body movements and more eagerness in response to complex than to simple textures. Experience with…

Two experiments were conducted in order to determine whether there are differences between well and malnourished infants in the extent to which they prefer novel stimuli. (MP)

Tested infants at five and seven months of age for visual novelty preference. Tested the same infants at 12, 24, and 36 months by means of a battery of cognitive and language tests that compare novelty preference to general and specific cognitive abilities. Results support recent findings that infant novelty preference is predictive of later IQ.…

This study followed the development of visual preferences in a single infant from birth to 10 weeks of age. The stimuli used were 5 x 10 item arrays of squares of lines in which a 3 x 3 target matrix of the other figure type (line or square) was embedded. The direction of first fixation and the total time spent looking at each side were determined…

Examines, in three experiments, infant sensitivity at 20, 30, and 36 weeks of age to 3-dimensional structure of a human form specified through biomechanical motions. Findings are interpreted as suggesting that infants, by 36 weeks of age, are extracting fundamental properties necessary for interpreting a point-light display as a person. (Author/BE)

This investigation also studied the relationship between gestational age and preferences for contour. (CB)