Commentary: Development of Perception-Action Systems and General Principles of Pattern Formation

Our commentary on this special issue devoted to Developmental Biodynamics: Brain, Body, and Behavior Connections is divided into 3 main sections. The first section is an overview of the individual contributions. 5 major themes are identified: (1) inappropriateness of computational treatments of development and the need for more biologically and physically relevant treatments; (2) significance of tailoring muscular to nonmuscular forces in developing movement coordination; (3) importance of spontaneous movements as exploratory and formative mechanisms; (4) influences of action capabilities on the development of perception capabilities, and vice versa; (5) applications of methods and techniques of nonlinear dynamics to developmental processes. In the second section, we provide a synopsis of current ways of thinking about prototypical developmental processes, namely, pattern formation and pattern differentiation, in various classes of physical and biological systems. It is suggested that efforts to understand the progressive formation and differentiation of patterns in terms of very general principles provide a valuable resource of concepts and methods for students of child development. In the third section, hypotheses about the development of perception-action systems are generated from juxtaposing the themes and conjectures of this special issue with general principles of pattern formation. The hypotheses suggest the possibility of a pattern formation or dynamics approach to child development as an alternative to the conventional approaches emphasizing maturation (nativist), specific learning experiences (empiricist), cognitive stages (Piagetian), and strategies of encoding and retrieval (information processing).     

Individual Differences in Infant Visual Attention: Four-Month-Olds' Discrimination and Generalization of Global and Local Stimulus Properties

Cognitive performance and development is negatively correlated with fixation duration patterns during infancy, and evidence suggests that long-looking infants may process visual information more slowly than short-looking infants. 3 experiments described here tested the possibility that these differences may be due to differential sensitivity to global and local visual information. Infants were administered discrimination and generalization tasks involving global and local information at varying levels of familiarization time. Results indicated that 4-month-olds process visual information in a global-to-local sequence. Both long- and short-looking infants were sensitive to both types of information, although long lookers required additional familiarization time to match the performance of short lookers. Finally, apparent "generalization" of global information at brief familiarization levels was traced to insensitivity to local stimulus properties. The results do not support the hypothesis that long- and short-looking infants are differentially sensitive to global versus local visual information at 4 months of age.     

Multimethod behavioral treatment of long-term selective mutism

This single-subject, experimental research design examined the efficacy of treating severe, long-term selective mutism in a 9-year-old male using shaping, multiple re-inforcers, natural consequences, stimulus fading, and mild aversives. Different treatment regimens were implemented in the home and school environments. A multiple baseline design across settings with changing criterion was used to evaluate the home intervention, and an A-B-A design was used for the school intervention. The home intervention resulted in an increase in the number of verbalizations in each setting and prompted generalization to additional settings. The school intervention increased the number of people spoken to, but the results were not maintained at follow-up nor did they generalize outside of the training situation. Possible explanations for the discrepancy in maintenance and generalization data between the two programs are presented.     

National Federation of abstracting and information services member data services

The Federation has collected data on the number of unique items covered in our members’ printed publications and databases since 1957. In addition to indicating the productivity of NFAIS member organizations, these data, published annually by NFAIS, reveal trends in scientific communication, including political, economic, and social factors. This article originally appeared inNFAIS Newsletter, August 1995. Copyright 1995, the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, Philadelphia, PA. Used with permission.