Three studies are proposed which are designed to identify a procedure appropriate for investigating the ability of infants to haptically discriminate objects differing in shape, texture, or size. Three different experimental paradigms are examined. Each paradigm has been used successfully in previous research to study visual and auditory perception in infants. At 1, 3, and 5 months of age, 120 normal male and female infants will be brought to the laboratory to have their haptic discrimination of shape or texture differences assessed by a habituation/dishabituation paradigm involving the cardiac orienting response to stimulation. A separate group of 120 infants (5, 7, 9, and 11 months) will have their haptic discrimination of shape, size, or texture differences assessed by a simple conditioned discrimination procedure. All infants will have their haptic discrimination of shape differences assessed using a tactile-visual transfer of familiarization paradigm. All three procedures are designed to assess potential differences in haptic discrimination between the infant's left and right hand. The identification of a procedure appropriate for the investigation of haptic perception during infancy is relevant not only to the study of perceptual development and cross-modal perception but also for the assessment of the neuropsychological organization of infants. Because of the neuroanatomical character of the relation between the hands and the left and right halves of the brain, the study of infant haptic perception may be used to assess the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres and the nature of interhemispheric transmission of information during infancy. Behavioral assessment of these aspects of neuropsychological functioning is currently unavailable for high-risk infants and other clinical infant populations.