Assessed infants' and adults' adjustment of hand orientation before grasping objects. Found that infants modified their hand orientation to match the long axis of an object, did not make anticipatory hand adjustments before reaching through a narrow aperture to grasp an object, and oriented their hand to be parallel with the handle of an object.…

Reaching and retrieving, with and without visual feedback of the hand, were observed in 50 infants ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 months. While failure to see the hand did not completely inhibit reaching and retrieving, it did reduce reaching and retrieving for infants 5 1/2 months and older. (Author/JMB)

In this longitudinal study, infants' visual guidance of hand orientation was investigated by presenting a rod either horizontally or vertically to see if the orientation of the reaching hand was adjusted toward the orientation of the rod before contacting it. Subjects were l8 infants seen monthly between 18 and 34 weeks of age. (RH)

Seven infants were tested between the ages of 6 and 25 weeks to see how they would grasp objects presented in full light and glowing or sounding objects presented in total darkness. In all three conditions, the infants first grasped the objects at nearly the same time, suggesting that internal stimuli, not visual guidance, directed their actions.…

The assessment of vision as it relates to and interacts with motor development is reviewed. The focus is on eye readiness skills normally occuring in infants' first few months of life and preceding eye-hand coordination. These visual skills fall into three categories: fixation, tracking, and scanning. Six standardized scales are reviewed and…

Fourteen five- and nine-month-old infants were presented with illuminated toys to reach for in total darkness. In half the trials, a luminescent marker was attached to the reaching hand. The nine-month olds reached just as accurately with or without the hand marker, whereas five-month olds were generally inaccurate and unaffected by the marker.…

Recent work on the development of the perceptual information-seeking function of the hand in relation to its motor-executive function is reviewed. (PCB)

Thirteen infants were presented with a moving object under two lighting conditions to investigate the role of vision in early reaching. Infants were tested twice, at 5 and 7.5 months of age. The results suggest that proprioceptive feedback and sight of the target allowed for successful reaching with limited visual information, even in relatively…

Three experiments examined vision's role in infants' grasping of horizontally and vertically oriented rods. Found that infants differentially oriented their hand regardless of lighting and similar to control conditions where they could see rod and hand throughout reach. Findings suggest that infants may use current sight of object's orientation or…

The reaching behavior of 12 infants in the presence of solid objects and pictures of objects placed within and beyond possible contact distance was videotaped in three sessions at 15, 19, and 24 weeks of age. (Author/MS)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO FIND OUT IF INFANTS WOULD EXHIBIT BEHAVIORS CONSISTENT WITH PIAGET'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECIPROCAL COORDINATIONS AMONG THE LOOKING, SUCKING AND GRASPING SCHEMAS. A SECOND PURPOSE WAS TO SEE IF INCREASED LOOKING AT AND TOUCHING OF NEARBY OBJECTS BY INFANTS WOULD RESULT IN ACCELERATION OF THE…