Movement is prospective. It structures self-generated engagement with objects and social partners and is fundamental to children's learning and development. In autistic children, previous reports of differences in movement kinematics compared to neurotypical peers suggest that its prospective organisation might be disrupted. Here, we employed a…

Examining age differences in motor learning using real-world tasks is often problematic due to task novelty and biomechanical confounds. Here, we investigated how children and adults acquire a novel motor skill in a virtual environment. Participants of three different age groups (9-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults) learned to use their upper…

Reduced feedback during practice has been shown to be detrimental to movement accuracy in children but not in young adults. We hypothesized that the reduced accuracy is attributable to reduced movement parameter learning, but not pattern learning, in children. A rapid arm movement task that required the acquisition of a motor pattern scaled to…

Recent studies in neuroimagery and cognitive psychology support the view of sensory-motor based knowledge: when processing an object concept, neural systems would re-enact previous experiences with this object. In this experiment, a conceptual switching cost paradigm derived from Pecher, Zeelenberg, and Barsalou (2003, 2004) was used to…

Human toddlers learn about objects through second-by-second, minute-by-minute sensory-motor interactions. In an effort to understand how toddlers' bodily actions structure the visual learning environment, mini-video cameras were placed low on the foreheads of toddlers, and for comparison also on the foreheads of their parents, as they jointly…

In this paper we examine two long-standing assumptions of the information processing perspective of perceptual-motor development, namely that: (1) the amount of noise in children's sensori-motor system decreases with increases in age up to adulthood; and (2) this age-related reduction in noise level leads to associated improvements in the accuracy…

For 89 White children 6 to 11 years old and of upper middle class, scores on Piagetian tasks of conservation of length and volume were related to age but field independence was correlated significantly to these scores. (Author)

Examined in 4 experiments 2-year-olds' knowledge of solidity in search tasks. Found no evidence that 2-year-olds represented solidity and support constraints on trajectories of falling objects; two experiments included 2.5-year-olds who succeeded on search tasks. Explored implications of 2-year-olds' poor performance in light of very young…

This study was designed to determine whether modifying the task characteristics of the Stage 6 sensorimotor means-end problem (by introducing additional visual cues) aided task solution in children. Subjects were 80 children, ages 20-33 months. (CS)

Elderly subjects demonstrated significantly greater levels of persistence. Contrast relationship of the target stimulus and its background did not interact with age. Although the data were consistent with a hypothesis of increased persistence of stimuli in the senescent nervous system, problems in the direct measurement technique are evident.…

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that the optimum precision level of knowledge of results for motor learning varies as a direct function of age. Subjects were first, third, fifth and ninth graders. (CM)

A cross-sectional study of language comprehension in relation to cognitive functioning in 48 10-to 21-month-old children, four at each month of age, revealed significant correlations between comprehension and five sensorimotor subscales. (Author/PHR)

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of aging on encoding and response selection stages of a choice reaction time task. Results suggested reducing stimulus discriminability may affect information processing prior to the encoding stage, but the encoding stage is the primary locus of the slowing which accompanied aging. (Author)

It has been hypothesized that the use of techniques to enhance motor skill acquisition and retention in the elderly may retard the onset of retirement, result in the continuation of a productive professional career, allow continued participation in recreational activities, and possibly slow the decline in physiological functions that normally…

This study examined the effects of age, sex, and ethnic group in selected motor tasks of primary grade children. The Kirk Motor Performance Test was developed to assess running, throwing/catching, and jumping abilities and was used to assess the motor performance of children ages 5 to 9. Results of the testing are presented in tabular form. (JD)