Some investigators have suggested that young infants show a preference for familiar stimuli, which is supplanted by a preference for novel stimuli as they get older and the act of recognition becomes commonplace. We have carried out two studies that fail to support this developmental view but suggest instead that shifts in preference reflect phases in information processing that occur within a given age; it is only the speed of processing that changes across ages. In the first study, infants aged 3'/2, 4 ! /a, and 6'/2 months were tested for visual recognition memory of shapes, using the paired comparison procedure. Each problem consisted of a familiarization period followed by a test during which the familiar and novel member of the pair were both presented. The 3'/4-month-olds showed a strong preference for the familiar; the 416-, and especially the 6'/£-month-olds, showed a preference for the novel. In the second study, however, these shifts were found to depend more on familiarization time than on age. Here, infants aged 3 l /2 months were allowed either 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 sec of familiarization; those aged 6'/a months were allowed either 5, 10, or 15 sec. Infants of both ages showed a preference for the familiar stimulus after limited exposure to it (10 and 5 sec, respectively); this preference shifted to a preference for the novel stimulus after more extended exposure (30 and 15 sec, respectively). It would appear that, regardless of age, infants prefer to look at that which is familiar as they begin to process a stimulus; once processing becomes more advanced, their preference shifts to the novel.

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Full-term middle-class, full-term lower class, and preterm infants were compared on cross-modal and visual intramodal functioning. In the cross-modal tasks, infants were familiarized either orally or tactually; in the intramodal tasks they were familiarized visually. Visual recognition memory was assessed by the pairedcomparison technique. All three groups demonstrated comparable visual-visual intramodal functioning, whereas only the full-term, middle-class group was able to transfer information across modalities. Failure in cross-modal transfer was discussed from the perspective of (a) a specific deficit in tactual sensory processing, (b) a general deficit in rate of information processing, and (c) a deficit in sensory integration per se. It was suggested that cross-modal functioning in infants may provide a sensitive index for assessing cognitive deficit in the early years.Recent studies suggest that young infants possess a remarkable ability to extract information about in variances from their everyday world. Visually, they can recognize pictures even when the perspective is altered (Cornell, 1974; Pagan, 1976), perceive a stable rigid object over perspective

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