Infant Manual Exploration of Objects, Surfaces, and Their Interrelations

Although a considerable amount is known about the development of object manipulation during the 1st year, less is known about how infants manually explore surfaces and relate objects to surfaces. To address these issues, 60 infants (20 each at 6, 8, and 10 months of age) were presented hard and soft objects on tabletop surfaces, which varied in terms of their material properties. Tabletop surfaces were either liquid, discontinuous, flexible, or rigid. Results indicated that infants explored the objects, surfaces, and their interactions selectively, tailoring their manual actions to the material properties of the objects or surfaces. In some instances, selectivity increased with age. The implications of these findings for understanding the origins of problem solving and tool use are considered. Over the course of the first year, infants acquire a rich and varied repertoire of actions for manipulating objects. Moreover, infants apply these actions selectively, tailoring a particular kind of movement to an object’s unique physical properties. For instance, by the middle of the second half-year, infants finger textured objects more than nontextured ones, shake or bang sounding objects more than nonsounding ones and press pliable objects more than nonpliable ones (Bushnell & Boudreau, 1993; Gibson & Walker, 1984; Lockman & McHale, 1989; Molina & Jouen, 1998; Palmer, 1989; Ruff, 1984). Collectively, these types of achievements belie accounts of sensorimotor development that suggest that object manipulation is undifferentiated during much of the first year. According to such accounts, lack of specificity in infants’ manual behaviors stems from a cognitive gap: Infants are not yet fully able to differentiate

[1]  D. Campbell,et al.  Sex differences in the activity level of infants. , 1999 .

[2]  R. Klatzky,et al.  Hand movements: A window into haptic object recognition , 1987, Cognitive Psychology.

[3]  K. Adolph,et al.  Learning in the development of infant locomotion. , 1997, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[4]  Esther Thelen,et al.  Rhythmical behavior in infancy: An ethological perspective. , 1981 .

[5]  J. Kagan,et al.  The Developmental Progression of Manipulative Play in the First Two Years. , 1976 .

[6]  H. Ruff,et al.  Infants' manipulative exploration of objects: Effects of age and object characteristics. , 1984 .

[7]  M. E. McCarty,et al.  The Beginnings of Tool Use by Infants and Toddlers , 2001 .

[8]  P. L. Adams.  THE ORIGINS OF INTELLIGENCE IN CHILDREN , 1976 .

[9]  E. Spelke,et al.  Origins of knowledge. , 1992, Psychological review.

[10]  J. Lockman,et al.  Going around transparent and grid-like barriers: detour ability as a perception–action skill , 2001 .

[11]  H. Kuypers,et al.  Corticospinal Connections: Postnatal Development in the Rhesus Monkey , 1962, Science.

[12]  A. Needham,et al.  A pick-me-up for infants’ exploratory skills: Early simulated experiences reaching for objects using ‘sticky mittens’ enhances young infants’ object exploration skills , 2002 .

[13]  J. Lockman.  A perception--action perspective on tool use development. , 2000, Child development.

[14]  E. Gibson,et al.  An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development , 2000 .

[15]  M. Bornstein,et al.  Mother-child play: sequential interactions and the relation between maternal beliefs and behaviors. , 1996, Child development.

[16]  J. Belsky,et al.  From exploration to play: A cross-sectional study of infant free play behavior. , 1981 .

[17]  Michèle Molina,et al.  Modulation of the palmar grasp behavior in neonates according to texture property , 1998 .

[18]  I. Sherman,et al.  INFANT BEHAVIOR , 1997, Science.

[19]  E. Gibson.  Exploratory behavior in the development of perceiving, acting, and the acquiring of knowledge. , 1988 .

[20]  E. Bushnell,et al.  Motor development and the mind: the potential role of motor abilities as a determinant of aspects of perceptual development. , 1993, Child development.

[21]  P. Willatts.  Development of means-end behavior in young infants: pulling a support to retrieve a distant object. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[22]  E J Gibson,et al.  Detection of the traversability of surfaces by crawling and walking infants. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[23]  R. Baillargeon.  Infants physical knowledge: Of acquired expectations and core principles , 2001 .

[24]  Marion A. Eppler,et al.  Crawling versus walking infants' perception of affordances for locomotion over sloping surfaces. , 1993, Child development.

[25]  The developmental relationship between infants' exploration and action on slanted surfaces , 1996 .

[26]  C. Palmer,et al.  The discriminating nature of infants' exploratory actions , 1989 .

[27]  Karen E Adolph,et al.  Learning to keep balance. , 2002, Advances in child development and behavior.

[28]  A. Smitsman,et al.  The development of tool use: Changing boundaries between organism and environment. , 1997 .

[29]  J. Lockman,et al.  Object Manipulation in Infancy , 1989 .

[30]  E. Gibson,et al.  Development of knowledge of visual-tactual affordances of substance. , 1984, Child development.