ABSTRACT
During this century, with few exceptions, studies of the earliest ontogenetic period of behavioral development focused on observations of the newborn animal or human neonate. Yet, as recently as the 1960s, developmentalists, pediatricians, and behavioral scientists still believed the newborn to be a tabula rasa (James, 1890). The conclusion, based on this belief, was that human newborns were considered incapable of doing, learning or knowing anything until sufficient time (some thought as much as 6 months) had elapsed and sensory and perceptual capacity developed enough for them to begin to adapt behaviorally and psychologically to their terrestrial environment. During the past 3 decades, research findings have dramatically altered this conceptualization of the ontogeny of behavioral development.
