They also suggest that infants represent information about not only whether a PLX3397 stimulus is familiar or unfamiliar but also whether it has been seen recently. “
“Recent research suggests that 12-month-old infants use shape to individuate the number of objects present in a scene. This study addressed the question of whether infants would also rely on shape when shape is only a temporary attribute of an object. Specifically, we investigated whether infants realize that shape changes reliably indicate identity changes only in the case of rigid objects, but not in the case of deformable plastic objects. Twelve-month-old infants observed how either a rigid

or a plastic Selleck AZD2281 object was placed in a box. When searching the box, they retrieved either an object with the same (no-switch event) or with a different shape (switch event). Infants correctly inferred two distinct objects in the switch event in the case of rigid objects, but

not in the case of plastic objects. A control experiment confirmed that this result was not due to a lack of salience of the shape transformation. Thus, infants’ re-searching behavior indicated that they viewed shape as being diagnostic in the individuation process of rigid objects only. “
“Comprehending spoken words requires a lexicon of sound patterns and knowledge of their referents in the world. Tincoff and Jusczyk (1999) demonstrated that 6-month-olds link the sound patterns “Mommy” and “Daddy” to video images of their parents, but not to other adults. This finding suggests that comprehension emerges at this young age and might take the form of very specific word-world links, as in “Mommy” referring only to the infant’s mother and “Daddy” referring only to the infant’s father. The current study was designed to investigate if 6-month-olds also show evidence of comprehending words that can refer to categories of objects. The results show that 6-month-olds link the sound patterns “hand” and “feet” to videos of an adult’s hand and feet. This finding suggests

that very early comprehension has a capacity CYTH4 beyond specific, one-to-one, associations. Future research will need to consider how developing categorization abilities, social experiences, and parent word use influence the beginnings of word comprehension. “
“Previous research has shown that caregiver protective behavior may exacerbate toddler distress in specific contexts. This study sought to extend this work to examine associations between these variables and toddler cortisol reactivity. Ninety-three 24-month-old toddlers were observed across six novel contexts designed to elicit distress. Toddlers were asked to give saliva samples at the beginning and end of the laboratory procedure. Toddler sadness, toddler fear and caregiver protective behavior were coded.