The relation between attachment and knowledge of self and mother in one to three-year-old infants.

The relation between attachment to mother and knowledge of self and mother in 2 domains was assessed in 1- to 3-year-old infants. Infants' featural knowledge was measured by featural recognition, name, possession, and gender. In this domain, no difference between the 2 attachment classifications was obtained at 1 year of age, but significant and increasingly large differences between securely and insecurely attached infants were found at 2 and 3 years of age. The second domain measured infants' actions on self and mother in the context of symbolic play. Regardless of age, infants who were securely attached to mother acted on self and mother with greater complexity than did infants who were insecurely attached. Attachment was related equally to the complexity of infants' knowledge of self and mother. These data were discussed in the context of the development of infants' internal working models of attachment and the onset of representational ability.

Adolescents' theories about the development of their relationships with parents.

Using a retrospective method, we assessed late adolescents' developmental theories about their affective relationships with their parents. Subjects used drawings and questionnaire ratings to portray their relationships with parents at five points between infancy and the present. From infancy to their current age, adolescents portrayed their relationships in two major ways. They perceived themselves as gaining in responsibility, dominance, independence, and similarity from infancy to the present, whereas they portrayed their parents as experiencing a decline on these dimensions. For variables indicating closeness and love, however, there was a striking discontinuity in these linear trends: Although adolescents perceived linear trends from infancy to adolescence, they depicted their current relationships as involving a great deal more love and closeness. They also portrayed their relationships with mothers and fathers somewhat differently. More responsibility was felt towards the mothers and they were portrayed as especially friendly, but subjects felt more similar to their fathers, whom they perceived as dominant. We interpreted the results as indicating that late adolescents constructed theories of the affective components of their relationships with their parents to serve the needs of separation while maintaining a close affective tie to the parents.

Infant visual responses to pattern: which metric predicts best?

Visual fixations were recorded in newborn, 4-, and 8-week old human infants as they scanned displays that varied along several dimensions. These displays were designed to evaluate four metrics that have been theorized to control infant visual preference: Contour length, size, number, and a new metric, CVAL, based on Contour Variability, Amount, and Location. This latter metric reflects characteristics of the visual system that other metrics ignore. Both contour length and CVAL separately accounted for approximately 95% of looking-duration variance, a much larger portion than the other metrics considered; however, CVAL accounted for more looking variance than contour length when the number of lines and contour length were deconfounded, and uniquely accommodated a large orientation effect. Finally, several predictions were confirmed about characteristics of visual scanning. Retinal structure and natural scanning dispositions should be considered in accounts of infants' reactions to visual stimuli.

Infant visual scanning of two- and three-dimensional forms.

2- and 3-dimensional forms affected 4- and 8-week-old infant visual behavior differently, 4-week-old infants fixated a recessed 3-dimensional form more than a 2-dimensional form but did not scan it differently. 8-week-old infants did not look more at 1 stimulus than another but scanned a raised 3-dimensional form differently than a 2-dimensional equivalent. For all stimuli and both age groups, there was a relation between attractiveness of stimuli and how they were scanned; babies who were most attracted to stimuli inspected them with the smallest eye movements.