Previous investigators have argued that printed words are recognized directly from visual representations and/or phonological representations obtained through phonemic recoding. The present research tested these hypotheses by manipulating graphernic and phonemic relations within various pairs of letter strings. Ss in two experiments classified the pairs as words or nonwords. Reaction times and error rates were relatively small for word pairs (e.g., BRIBE-TRIBE) that were both graphemically and phonemically similar. Graphemic similarity alone inhibited performance on other word pairs (e.g., COUCH-TOUCH). These and other results suggest that phonological representations play a significant role in visual word recognition and that there is a dependence between successive phonemic-encoding operations. An encoding-bias model is proposed to explain the data.

This study investigated the predictability of cognitive differences at 12 months from infant and maternal behaviors at 4 months. Babies who showed more habituation and faster habituation at 4 months scored higher on the Bayley Scales and had larger speaking vocabularies at 12 months. Success with select 4-month Bayley Scale items also predicted 12-month Bayley scores but did not predict speaking vocabulary. Additionally, 4-month-olds who vocalized more or who more frequently manipulated objects spoke more words at 12 months and als tended to score higher on the Bayley Scales at 12 months. Frequent maternal stimulation at 4 months, specifically, by encouraging babies' attention to objects, correlated with the size of speaking vocabulary at 12 months; a cross-lagged panel correlation suggested that maternal stimulation positively influenced infants' cognitive development. Regression analyses examined the power of combinations of infant and maternal predictors. Overall, the results show that some individual differences in cognition may be predictable across the first year of life.

No abstract

This study investigated the predictability of cognitive differences at 12 months from infant and maternal behaviors at 4 months. Babies who showed more habituation and faster habituation at 4 months scored higher on the Bayley Scales and had larger speaking vocabularies at 12 months. Success with select 4-month Bayley Scale items also predicted 12-month Bayley scores but did not predict speaking vocabulary. Additionally, 4-month-olds who vocalized more or who more frequently manipulated objects spoke more words at 12 months and als tended to score higher on the Bayley Scales at 12 months. Frequent maternal stimulation at 4 months, specifically, by encouraging babies' attention to objects, correlated with the size of speaking vocabulary at 12 months; a cross-lagged panel correlation suggested that maternal stimulation positively influenced infants' cognitive development. Regression analyses examined the power of combinations of infant and maternal predictors. Overall, the results show that some individual differences in cognition may be predictable across the first year of life.

No abstract