This volume is the outcome of an international symposium held in Berlin, FRG, which brought together researchers in the field of infant development.The contributors are from Europe and North America, and have as their primary professional interest either pediatrics, biology or psychology. These fields, in spite of common involvement and large overlap, still have to overcome communication problems and differences in scientific approaches. The emphasis of this book is on the efforts of the participants towards reaching a mutual understanding. In spite of disciplinary diversity, the papers in this book complement each other, and set the scene for future multidisciplinary research and exchange in the field of infant development.

Originally published in 1984, this was the first volume on this topic to appear in an emerging area of study at the time. The editors were selective in choosing their contributions to the volume to ensure that both the developmental and neuropsychological domains were well represented. One of the major goals was to foster greater contact and cross-fertilization between subdisciplines that they firmly believed should be more intimately connected. The result is this title, which can now be enjoyed in its historical context.

This is a volume about the process of scientific discovery. Thirteen leading senior scientists, each interested in some aspect of behaviorial development, recount their intellectual journeys over the course of their careers and document their individual struggles to better understand and describe various developmental phenomena. Covering a broad range of topics, including perceptual, motor, social, and cognitive development, the contributors to this volume provide case-studies of how one pursues a long-term, systematic research program and how scientists continually formulate and reformulate their working conceptual frameworks based on their research results. Conceptions of Development provides a unique and personal, behind-the-scenes account of the process of scientific discovery, illustrating that useful and enduring scientific insight derives from the bidirectional interplay between empirical work and theory formulation. This volume will be of interest to a broad audience consisting not only of psychologists and psychobiologists interested in the study of development, but also teachers and students interested in behavioral development and its investigation, and the general reader interested in the process of scientific discovery.

"Continuities and Discontinuities in Development" was the theme for the Second Biennial DPRG Retreat, a three-day meeting held at Estes Park, Colorado, in June 1982. The meeting was sponsored by the Devel opmental Psychobiology Research Group (DPRG) of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The DPRG is a group of individuals conducting research in many areas of develop ment who meet on a regular basis to present and discuss their work and receive feedback and encouragement. In 1974, this group was awarded an endowment fund by the Grant Foundation, the aims of which were to facilitate the research of young investigators, to encourage new re search, and to provide seed money for collaborative ventures. Much of the work reported in this volume and in the earlier volume from the First DPRG Retreat is the result of that support. In addition to the work of the members of the DPRG, a select group of guests was invited to participate in the meeting and contribute to this volume. The chapters by William Greenough, Jerome Kagan, and Michael Rutter result from the participation of these scholars at the retreat. We would like to acknowledge the support of a number of indi viduals who have been instrumental in supporting the DPRG as a whole, as well as those who contributed directly to the Second Biennial Retreat and to the volume.

Early Experiences and Early Behavior: Implications for Social Development discusses the problems associated with determining the effects of early experiences on later behavior, with emphasis on social development, both in humans and in animals. The overall approach is one of constructive criticism, in that specific problems in methodology and conceptualization are highlighted and promising new approaches are suggested and illustrated. The book is divided into two parts. Part I deals with methodological, theoretical, and conceptual problems: Recurring problems of methodology and definition are specified; a thorough review of the animal literature in early experiences studies over the past quarter of a century pinpoints certain areas of progress among many other areas where advances have been sparse; and two newer approaches are discussed and supported, namely behavioral metamorphosis and the interactional-developmental approach. Part II presents two case studies which serve to exemplify a variety of older and newer approaches to the investigation of the effects of early experiences on social development.

The first two years of life are a period of unparalleled growth and change. Within a state-of-the-art biopsychosocial framework, this innovative volume explores the multiple contexts of infant development--the ways in which genes, neurobiology, behavior, and environment interact and shape each other over time. Methods for disentangling, measuring, and analyzing complex, nonlinear developmental processes are presented. Contributors explore influences on the infant's growth in major domains, including cognitive and socioemotional functioning and mental health. The consequences of family stress, poverty, and other adversities are probed, and promising directions for prevention and intervention identified.

The "Development of Attachment and Affiliative Systems" was selected as the topic for a three-day workshop held at Estes Park, Colorado, in May, 1980. The papers which resulted from this effort not only reflect a recent intensity of research in this area, but also highlight a mounting need for ask ing questions across disciplines and for integrating theories. The sponsor of the workshop was the Developmental Psychobiology Research Group (DPRG) of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Medical School, a group which itself is interdisciplinary and which has met regularly since 1969 to criticize research, ask questions, and discuss findings. In 1974, the Group was awarded an endowment fund by the Grant Foundation after a request for a proposal initiated by Philip Sapir and Douglas Bond. The aims of this fund are to facilitate the research of young investigators, to encourage new research, and to provide seed money for collaborative ventures. Much of what is reported here results from that support. Thus, happily, not only are the contributions timely by virtue of converging on an important topic, but they also commemorate more than five years of Grant Foundation support. Once the topic was chosen, a small number of guests were invited to participate. The papers of Timiras, Sackett, Konner, and Lamb represent dif fering perspectives from neurobiology, primatology, cultural anthropology, and social psychology.