In these studies we assessed development between ages 6 and 16 of the ability to encode unfamiliar faces. Performance improved markedly between ages 6 and 10 and then remained at a fixed level or actually declined for several years, finally improving again by age 16. Evidence is provided that this distinctive developmental course reflects, in part, acquisition of processes specific to the encoding effaces rather than general pattern encoding or metamemorial skills. The possibility that maturational factors contribute to the developmental course efface recognition is raised, and two sources of data relevant to assessing this possibility are discussed.Normal adults have a prodigious capacity for making new faces familiar. Whether one's high school class contained 90 or 800 people, approximately 90% of those classmates are recognized 35 years after graduation (Bahrick, Bahrick, & Wittlinger, 1975). Less dramatically, laboratory studies have shown that very brief exposure to previously unfamiliar faces permits subjects to distinguish those faces from new ones at a later time. The level of performance remains high across inspection sets that range in size from 20 to 72

It matters whether the pathogenetic agent in schizophrenia is static or progressive, since if it is the latter it is worthwhile to search not only for means of prevention but also for interventions that will arrest progression as early as possible.

Mirror movements are normal in childhood and may persist to a later age following early brain lesions. We studied these movements in patients with childhood hemiparesis at different ages. The earlier the lesions, the more the mirror movements persisted. More mirror movement persisted in the nonparetic hand than in the paretic one. Complete paralysis of either hand tended to abolish all mirror movements in both hands. The task eliciting the most mirror movement was one that may come under ipsilateral control following contralateral damage. The greater persistence of mirror movements after earlier lesions appears to be an indicator of more extensive compensatory motor system reorganization that takes place after damage to a less mature nervous system.

No abstract