ABSTRACT
Evidence of the rapid and extensive growth of knowledge of early development is provided in the Handbook of Child Psychology (Mussen, 1983) where the largest of the four volumes is devoted to the period of infancy (Haith & Campos, 1983). This intense interest derives from the general aim of investigators to outline the sequence of steps by which infants reach maturity and from the more circumscribed aim of specifying capacities and processes at the initial phase of development. It may also be, as Spelke (1983) argues, that by studying infants we can peel away the layers of specialized notions that are gradually acquired and so reveal more clearly the initial core conceptions about the nature of the world that guide our interactions throughout life.
