To harness the complexity of their high-dimensional bodies during sensorimotor development, infants are guided by patterns of freezing and freeing of degrees of freedom. For instance, when learning to reach, infants free the degrees of freedom in their arm proximodistally, that is, from joints that are closer to the body to those that are more…

Maternal singing is considered vital to infant well-being. This study focuses on vocal emotion expressions in infant-directed singing among mothers in war conditions. It examines the questions: (a) how traumatic war events and mental health problems are associated with the content and valence of vocal emotion expressions and (b) how these emotion…

An ability to perceive tactile and visual stimuli in a common spatial frame of reference is a crucial ingredient in forming a representation of one's own body and the interface between bodily and external space. In this study, the authors investigated young infants' abilities to perceive colocation between tactile and visual stimuli presented on…

When learning object function, infants must detect relations among features--for example, that squeezing is associated with squeaking or that objects with wheels roll. Previously, Perone and Oakes (2006) found 10-month-old infants were sensitive to relations between object appearances and actions, but not to relations between appearances and…

Skilled behavior requires a balance between previously successful behaviors and new behaviors appropriate to the present context. We describe a dynamic field model for understanding this balance in infant perseverative reaching. The model predictions are tested with regard to the interaction of two aspects of the typical perseverative reaching…

All children have their own unique ways of interacting with their environments, connecting with people around them, and learning about their world. Babies take in information from their senses and use this information to respond to people and events. Children's daily experiences facilitate integration of their senses. These early sensory…

Conservation of weight is known to be achieved at a conceptual level at about 9 years of age. Infant behavior seems to indicate that between 6 and 18 months of age they develop a sensorimotor form of conservation. (Author/RC)

The paper describes approaches used to assess preverbal or nonverbal orthopedically handicapped infants. The first section describes a conceptual approach to development that differs from the normative approach. The conceptual development model emphasizes developmental structures rather than successive cumulative acquisitions of behavior. This…

FINDINGS WERE REPORTED ON THE ROLE OF EXPERIENCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THOSE SKILLS NECESSARY FOR VISUALLY DIRECTED REACHING. THE SKILLS INVOLVED WERE THE ORIENTING, ACCOMMODATING, AND PURSUIT RESPONSES OF THE EYES, ALL OF WHICH ARE ACHIEVED DURING THE FIRST HALF-YEAR OF LIFE. SEVERAL EXPERIMENTAL CHANGES WERE MADE TO THE ENVIRONMENT OF A GROUP OF…

An adaptation of the "Stages of Sensorimotor Intelligence in the Child" was used in a longitudinal study of the sensorimotor behavior acquisitions of 24 healthy middle-class infants. Rate of behavior acquisition, variability in behavior performance and relationships between subtests were analyzed. Some comparisons with previous studies are…

This paper describes an intensive educational program for mother-infant pairs from disadvantaged populations. The program had three aims: (1) to help the mothers understand that the way they interact with their infants makes an important difference in the child's development; (2) to encourage and teach mothers to respond to infant vocalizing and…

In this article Tortora, a dance therapist, interviews Myron Hofer, director of the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Columbia University. Dr. Hofer has spent decades studying how the mother's behaviors and actions shape and regulate the physiological, neurophysiological, and psychological functioning of her babies--specifically,…

Three experiments explored 5- and 7-month-olds' intermodal coordination of proprioceptive information produced by leg movements and visual movement information specifying these same motions. Results suggested that coordination of visual and proprioceptive inputs is constrained by infants' information processing of the displays and have…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…

Learning in infancy is based on activity, beginnings, and curiosity, the so-called ABC's. Earliest behavior consists of mass activity, the period from birth to 24 months of sensory-motor development which provides the foundation for all future learning. Adults must provide space, toys, and affectionate care to help infants proceed through…