Amy Needham - US grants

The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the development of infants' ability to segment the visual world into objects. Researchers have identified three kinds of information that could be especially useful in parsing stationary, three-dimensional scenes into separate objects: configurational information (i.e., the shapes, colors, and patterns of objects), physical knowledge (e.g., the knowledge that objects cannot remain stable without support), and knowledge gained through previous experiences with objects (i.e., knowledge about specific objects and more general kinds of objects). The proposed experiments investigate infants' ability to use information from these sources with three sets of larger questions in mind. First, how do infants integrate information from different sources? What strategies do infants use that allow them to resolve conflicting perceptual cues and produce a unitary interpretation of a display? How can these integration strategies be described? The second larger question is how do these integration strategies change over time? Are there differences in younger and older infants' integration strategies? How can these different strategies be explained? And finally, the third question is can the observed changes in infants' integration abilities be linked to kinds of experiences they have with objects? These questions are addressed in 15 proposed experiments organized into four sections. The first three sections contain experiments that focus on (a) the role of one particular source of information, (b) how infants integrate information from this source with information from other sources, and (c) changes in integration that occur with development. The fourth section consists of experiments investigating the role of infants' experiences (both visual and manual) in the developmental changes in integration strategies. The proposed research should add to our understanding of how young infants experience the visual world, and could also lead to the identification of mechanisms controlling perceptual and cognitive development in infancy.

The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the development of infants' ability to grasp objects effectively by accommodating their hands to object properties prior to grasping the object. The experiments in this proposal are designed to (a) discover new (as yet unstudied) kinds of object properties that infants may manually anticipate, (b) investigate whether automatization of infants' actions or knowledge about optimal grasping strategies influences infants' production of these behaviors, and (c) determine whether there are learning or practice contexts that facilitate the development of these behaviors. These issues are addressed in 18 proposed experiments organized into four sections. The first section consists of studies that explore infants' anticipation of object properties that have yet to be studied, with the hope of determining whether there is consistency in the age at which infants display manual anticipatory behaviors across different physical properties of objects. The second section uses a dual-task paradigm to determine whether the addition of a second simultaneous task affects older infants' ability to display these anticipatory behaviors. The third section uses visual tasks to determine whether or not infants can differentiate appropriate from inappropriate ways of acting upon objects prior to the time that they produce these behaviors themselves. And finally, the fourth section examines three different learning contexts that may facilitate the development of these anticipatory grasping behaviors. The proposed research will add to our understanding of how young infants reach for objects and could also lead to clues about one of the most perplexing puzzles of infant research in the past 15 years: why young infants display such dazzling competencies when tested with visually-based experimental procedures, yet do not typically reveal these same abilities or expectations when tested with manually-based measures.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this meeting is to bring together researchers from diverse areas in the study of infant learning and infant cognition in order to move toward a more general understanding of the role of learning in infant cognitive development. Much of recent work on infant cognition has focused on what infants seem to know at different points in development, but has spent less time investigating questions of how this knowledge develops. Recent work on infant learning across a number of domains offers a vantage point from which to address this gap, and thereby address a number of unresolved issues concerning the nature of the infant mind, including the underlying mechanisms of learning and the creation of conceptual structures. Leading researchers in the following areas of study will be invited to participate in this conference: Learning about Objects and Actions, Language Learning, Category Learning, Social Learning, and Processes Supporting Learning. A group of about ten high-profile younger researchers will be invited to give talks featuring how learning and cognition come together in their own work. These talks will be discussed and synthesized by a group of five senior discussants. The objectives are to provide all of the participants with examples of connections between learning cognition that they can then apply to their own research. A new synthesis of infant cognition that focuses on learning will push the field past the outdated notions of "nativism or nothing" that currently pervade researchers' thinking about the origins of cognition.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The questions asked in this proposal represent a new way of thinking about motor transitions in infancy. Rather than focusing on how infants navigate the complicated physical tasks inherent to beginning to reach, these experiments explore why they do so: what entices infants to act on objects in the first place? I examine three possible sources of motivation: Object-driven, Other-driven, and Self-driven. Experiments investigate the influence of all three sources and go on to further investigate the role of self-driven factors, hypothesizing that feedback from infants' own actions on objects (first those produced accidentally, later those produced intentionally) is critically important for making the transition into reaching at the appropriate time. This feedback is reinforcing and helps draw infants into more interactions with objects. Testing this model involves the use of sticky mittens, a device invented by the P.I. to study the transition into reaching during infancy. Overall, this proposal breaks new ground in motor development research and offers a new lens through which researchers can understand motor transitions in infancy. It also will provide clear-cut plans for interventions that could help infants with visual or motor impairments begin reaching for objects earlier than they would otherwise. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research investigates the question of why infants begin reaching for objects by testing three possible ideas: infants are curious about objects, they want to imitate other people, and/or they learn from the consequences of their own actions. If we understand what motivates typically developing infants to reach for objects, we can design interventions to help atypically developing infants begin to reach earlier than they would otherwise. The earlier infants become interested in and begin reaching for objects on their own, the more they can learn about the physical world. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well known that blind infants with no motor impairments begin reaching for objects somewhat later (on the order of 5 months later) than sighted infants. Why is this the case? The answer to this question may lie in what entices infants (whether visually impaired or not) to act on objects in the first place. The model proposed here predicts that feedback from infants'own actions on objects (first those produced accidentally, later those produced intentionally) is critically important for drawing infants into the world of objects. Testing this model involves the use of sticky mittens, a device invented by the P.I. to study the transition into reaching during infancy. In this application, we explain how using sticky mittens with continuously sounding objects can both a) determine whether self-produced feedback is important to early reaching, and b) lead to the development of an intervention to help blind infants begin reaching for (and learning from) objects around the same time that sighted infants do. Such an intervention could have major positive effects of the infants'cognitive development and quality of life. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research addresses both conceptual and practical issues regarding the transition into reaching for blind and sighted infants. Proposed experiments are designed to test our theory about why infants typically make the transition into a new level of motor functioning: they observe the consequences of their still immature and haphazard motor skills. If this is what typically lures infants into independent reaching, it would explain why blind infants begin reaching several months after sighted infants do, and it would suggest that providing opportunities for these observations should help infants reach earlier.

Adults use tools, such as a spoon for eating soup or a screwdriver for constructing a piece of furniture, frequently and effortlessly. Many processes contribute to tool-use behaviors, but the ways in which these processes combine are not well understood. Studying how tool use develops in young children can provide insights into how these processes integrate to product effective tool use. Two different approaches to the study of tool use development have emerged from different research traditions: one focuses on how children's tool use arises from their exploratory actions on objects, and the other focuses on children's ideas about tools and how they are meant to be used. This project will help determine which of these two approaches provides a better explanation for the development of tool use. In addition to providing evidence about how infants build on their early experiences to develop mature tool-use skills across the first two years of life, this project also provides opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students to learn about the research process, and for parents of participants to learn about how to support their infant's early perceptual-motor development.

A longitudinal approach will be used to assess the development of tool use in 42 infants. Early in the study, 3-month-old infants will be given daily play-based experiences that could influence their later tool use. Half of the infants will receive experiences that enhance their performance in tool-use tasks, and half will receive experiences that are similar, but that are not expected to influence performance in tool-use tasks. Before and after these experiences, all infants will be given age-appropriate tasks to measure their tool-related skills. At 2 years of age, their concepts of the purpose(s) of individual tools will be assessed. The question of most interest is whether infants whose perception-action skills are improved by their earlier experiences will also show improvement in their tool concepts. If so, this will be evidence that early perception-action skills are closely related to (and may even transform into) later tool concepts. If not, this will be evidence that the development of early perception-action skills are distinct from the development of later tool concepts. These data will shed light on the basic processes underlying tool use behaviors and whether early experiences are important for the typical development of these behaviors.