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…

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…

Two experiments tested the effects of crawling-onset age, amount of crawling experience, and testing age on avoidance of the deep side of a visual cliff apparatus by human infants. Crawling-onset age disciminated between infants because crawling during the tactile phase interferes with later visual control of locomotion. (Author/RD)

Examined perception of object unity in partial occlusion in 72 infants. Recorded how long subjects looked at a display of complete and incomplete rods. In test and control conditions, infants looked longer at broken rods than at complete rods, suggesting that infants' cognitive, visual, or attentional skills may be insufficient to support…

Four experiments investigated the role of geometric path type in infants' ability to make spatial inferences about the location of a hidden object after the infants had been moved. In all but the fourth experiment, infants were able to retrieve the objects unless objects were located behind the infants. (SKC)

Examined eight-month-olds' ability to remember the location of a hidden object, using a nonsearch task. Results suggested that the infants remembered the object's location, and were surprised when it had been moved. (SKC)

Four experiments studied the perception of the unity and boundaries of objects by 88 4-month-old infants who manipulated them out of the visual field. Infants perceived the unity/boundaries of these objects by detecting the motion patterns they themselves produced. Discrimination between motion patterns transferred from touch to vision. (SLD)

Used a set of six measures to analyze both the products and process of spatial grouping in 40 children between the ages of 18 and 42 months. Results confirmed and elaborated on previously established developmental findings for each measure. (SKC)

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…

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…

A quantifiable regimen of supplemental rotary vestibular stimulation was administered in a cross-over longitudinal design to 11 nonhandicapped and 10 Down's syndrome infants. Results indicated that supplementary rotary vestibular stimulation produced no measurable gain in motor ability. Greater gains were exhibited in the early phase of the study,…

Motor behavior, motor performance, and motor learning are discussed at length within the context of infant and child development. Individual chapters focus on the following: the sensory-motor behavior of infants; analysis of selected perceptual-motor programs; beginnings of movement in infants; gross motor attributes in early childhood; visual…