Reaching and grasping of objects are overt reflections of planning and adjustment to environmental demands. By manipulating the cognitive and motor demands in tasks, one can study infants' anticipation of contact with an object by measuring their motor adaptations during a single reach and across repeated reaching. The use of infrared video recording allows variation in visual cues, while motion analysis system technology allows precise measurement of hand position in 3-dimensional space, hand orientation, and hand movement in relation to object movement. From our research in the previous grant period we know that infants 5- to 7- months-old do not have to see their hands in order to guide an accurate reach, even when the object is moving. We now propose to study reaching in infants in three sets of studies whose goal is to understand how infants use perceptual information to plan and guide action. The first set of studies takes advantage of the tendency of infants to orient their hands to match an object's orientation, which facilitates grasping. We will investigate the type and amount of visual and auditory information necessary to support this preparatory orienting of the hand. Some studies will feature rotating rods whose motion is 'sometimes seen and sometimes must be inferred. The second set of studies will vary task constraints to study infants' acceptance or avoidance of awkward grips in order to achieve a goal. The third set of studies will manipulate visual information and predictability of moving objects to determine if infants change strategies to cope with these demands. These studies encompass perceptual, motor, and cognitive development in infants, and will track developmental changes across a wide age range, from 5 to 16 months.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD027714-11
Application #
2673634
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1990-12-01
Project End
1999-07-31
Budget Start
1998-08-01
Budget End
1999-07-31
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
153223151
City
Amherst
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
01003
Claxton, Laura J; McCarty, Michael E; Keen, Rachel (2009) Self-directed action affects planning in tool-use tasks with toddlers. Infant Behav Dev 32:230-3
Shutts, Kristin; Ornkloo, Helena; von Hofsten, Claes et al. (2009) Young children's representations of spatial and functional relations between objects. Child Dev 80:1612-27
Kloos, Heidi; Haddad, Jeffrey M; Keen, Rachel (2006) Which cues are available to 24-month-olds? Evidence from point-of-gaze measures during search. Infant Behav Dev 29:243-50
Mash, Clay; Novak, Elizabeth; Berthier, Neil E et al. (2006) What do two-year-olds understand about hidden-object events? Dev Psychol 42:263-71
Berthier, Neil E; Keen, Rachel (2006) Development of reaching in infancy. Exp Brain Res 169:507-18
Keen, Rachel E; Berthier, Neil E (2004) Continuities and discontinuities in infants' representation of objects and events. Adv Child Dev Behav 32:243-79
Claxton, Laura J; Keen, Rachel; McCarty, Michael E (2003) Evidence of motor planning in infant reaching behavior. Psychol Sci 14:354-6
Butler, Samantha C; Berthier, Neil E; Clifton, Rachel K (2002) Two-year-olds' search strategies and visual tracking in a hidden displacement task. Dev Psychol 38:581-90
Goubet, N; Clifton, R K; Shah, B (2001) Learning about pain in preterm newborns. J Dev Behav Pediatr 22:418-24
McCarty, M E; Clifton, R K; Ashmead, D H et al. (2001) How infants use vision for grasping objects. Child Dev 72:973-87

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