A project to determine how children and members of their social environment regulate the stimulation they receive from each other is presented. The general procedure employed was the descriptive and experimental analysis of the behavior of subjects in social interaction situations, as recorded on videotape. Types of dyads videotaped include mother-infant dyads in a caretaking-play setting, mature (adult) dyads in semistructured focused interaction, and preschool peer dyads in preacademic task settings. Results of the mother-infant study include: (1) Cry-fuss pauses of less than one second were considered socially nonfunctional; (2) A basic mother infant behavior code was established; and (3) Sampling statistics routines will be included to detect significant differences in the average temporal locations of sequential dependencies between events. Nonverbal regulators in mature dyads were found to include manual illustrative and emphatic movements, facial affect displays, orientational and attentional movements of the head and body, and adjustments to tension. Videotapes of social behavior of preschool children performing preacademic tasks revealed that the performance of low income preschool children is affected by a combination of the familiarity and competence of peers present in the performance situation. With familiarity and performance controlled, family economic level appears not to have any notable implications for preschool performance. These studies indicate that as early as the preschool level, existing human resources in the peer group can be arranged to provide more optimal conditions for testing ability and promoting learning in social or academic tasks. (CK)