The relative efficacy of vestibular-proprioceptive stimulation and the upright position in enhancing visual pursuit in neonates.

48 healthy neonates born to multiparae were randomly assigned to view a moving stimulus either in the horizontal or the upright position, with or without added vestibular stimulation and with or without pacifier sucking. The infant was shown a moving black line inside a strictly controlled visual environment provided by an apparatus which permitted horizontal and upright positioning and displacement of the infant. Visual tracking was recorded by a concealed TV camera positioned at a constant distance and angle from the infants' eyes in both positions. Quality of tracking during each of 4 trials was scored on a 7-point scale. Results indicate that vestibularproprioceptive stimulation provided to the infant either horizontally or semivertically significantly enhanced his visual tracking, whereas the upright position did not. Pacifier sucking also improved his performace.     

A new active R bandpass filter

A new active R filter which realizes a second order bandpass transfer function is given. The network employs only resistors and two operational amplifiers. Sensitivities to all passive and active circuit components are very low. Design equations are given and experimental results are also included.     

On Incremental Deformations of Initially Stressed Media with Couple Stresses

A two-dimensional theory for the incremental deformations of an initially stressed continuum with couple stresses is established in this paper. As applications of theory, the problems of internal instability and wave propagation are studied. It is found that the otherwise non-dispersive waves become dispersive, and additional local modes of buckling and vibratory motion are observed. To complete the theory, a stress function formulation of equations is also presented.     

Developmental priority of identity conservation: acceleration of identity and equivalence in normal and moderately retarded children

In an attempt to clarify the chronological relationship between identity and equivalence conservation, normal preschool-aged children (experiment 1) were exposed to brief videotape demonstrations of a model conserving identity and equivalence, identity only, equivalence only, or neither. Subsequent performances indicate that identity was easier to accelerate than equivalence, and training in both identity and equivalence appeared to be most effective in accelerating conservation. Trainable mentally retarded (TMR) children were then exposed to either the identity-equivalence-conserving or control model (experiment 2). This population, which some have argued remains at a preoperational level of functioning, was more likely to conserve identity than equivalence. In addition, conservation in the training group increased following training, though these gains were not maintained over a 3-week retention interval.     

Sex-related differences in response to practice on a visual-spatial test and generalization to a related test

93 first graders (mean age 6.5 years) were given a pretest and posttest on half of the items from the Children's Embedded Figures Test. Half of the children were randomly assigned to a training condition and received a brief training procedure on visual-spatial disembedding prior to the administration of the posttest. Children in the control condition received no training. The performance of girls improved significantly more from pretest to posttest than the performance of boys. Boys and girls showed similar beneficial effects of training in addition to the benefit of direct practice. The tendency that was observed for boys to perform higher than girls on the pretest, p less than .10, was not evident on the posttest. Scores on the pretest predicted scores on a different measure of visual-spatial ability only for children in the control group. The results are interpreted in terms of current theories of sex differences in visual-spatial perception.     

Behavior of narcotics-addicted newborns.

The behavior of narcotics-addicted and nonaddicted newborns on the first 2 days of life was assessed with the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. In addition to classic signs of narcotics abstinence, addicted infants were less able to be maintained in an alert state and less able to orient to auditory and visual stimuli. These deficits were especially pronounced at 48 hours of age. Addicted infants were as capable of self-quieting and responding to soothing intervention as normal neonates, although they were substantially more irritable. These characteristics and addicted infants' greater resistance to cuddling are discussed in terms of their potential impact on early infant-care-giver interaction.