Twenty Studies That Revolutionized Child Psychology

1. Introduction

PART I: FOUR STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
2. From Mollusks to Rugrats: Biological Principles and Psychological Ideas.
3. Piaget, J. (1962).  Play, dreams and imitation in childhood.  New York: Norton.
4. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978).  Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5. Baillargeon, R., Spelke, E.S., & Wasserman, S. (1985).  Object permanence in five-month-old infants.  Cognition, 20, 191-208.    
6. Thelen, E., & Ulrich, B.D. (1991).  Hidden skills: A dynamic systems analysis of treadmill stepping during the first year.  Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56, (1, Serial No. 223).

PART II: FIVE STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED PERCEPTUAL AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
7. Gibson, E.J., & Walk, R.D. (1960).  The “visual cliff.”  Scientific American, 202, 64-71.
8. Fantz, R.L. (1961).  The origin of form perception.  Scientific American, 204, 66-73.
9. Hubel, D.H., & Wiesel, T.N. (1962).  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat’s visual cortex. The Journal of Physiology, 160, 106-154.
10. Werker, J.F., & Tees, R.C. (1984).  Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life.  Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 49-63.
11. Saffran, J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1996).  Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants.  Science, 274, 1926-1928.

PART III: FOUR STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
12. Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582.
13. Meltzoff, A.N., & Moore, M.K. (1977).  Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates.  Science, 198, 75-79.
14. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977).  Toward an experimental ecology of human development.  American Psychologist , 32, 513-531.
15. Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M.I. (1989).  Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933-938.

PART IV: SEVEN STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED PARENTING AND CLINICAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
16. Harlow, H.F., & Harlow, M.K. (1965).  The affectional systems.  In A. Schrier, H.F. Harlow, & F. Stollnitz (Eds.), Behavior of nonhuman primates:  Modern research trends.  New York:  Academic Press.
17. Bowlby, J. (1969).  Attachment and loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
18. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1979). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
19. Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H.G. (1968). Temperament and behavior disorders in childhood.  New York: New York University Press.
20. Baumrind, D. (1971).  Current patterns of parental authority.  Developmental Psychology Monographs, 4 (1, part 2).
21. DeCasper, A.J., & Fifer, W.P. (1980).  Of human bonding:  Newborns prefer their mothers’ voices.  Science, 208, 1174-1176.
22. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U. (1985).  Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?  Cognition, 21, 37-46.