Geometric, But Not Kinetic, Properties of Tools Affect the Affordances Perceived by Toddlers

We asked what rod properties affected children's reaching range. Children, 2 to 4 years old, held a rod (length 10-60 cm) with the tip in the air, walked toward a toy on a table, chose a place to stop, and displaced the toy with the rod's tip. In 2 experiments rod length, mass, and mass distribution were manipulated to determine whether and how geometric and kinetic properties affected chosen distance and posture. Chosen distance depended only on the length of the rod. Postures were affected by length and mass properties of the rod. Not all adaptations in posture were prospectively reflected in the distance. Although we found variations over age, we did not find clear developmental trends. The results are discussed in broader perspectives of development of affordances and tool use.

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

[2]  A. Smitsman,et al.  Affordances, perceptual complexity, and the development of tool use. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[3]  A. Yonas,et al.  Effective action by infants to contact objects by reaching and leaning. , 1993, Child development.

[4]  E Thelen,et al.  Development of reaching during the first year: role of movement speed. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  Ad W. Smitsman,et al.  Tool use and tool making: a dynamical developmental perspective , 2003 .

[6]  M. Olsson,et al.  Classical Mechanics: A Modern Perspective, 2nd ed. , 2000 .

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

[8]  Robert E. Shaw,et al.  Dimensionless invariants for intentional systems: Measuring the fit of vehicular activities to environmental layout. , 1995 .

[9]  E. Thelen,et al.  The dynamics of embodiment: A field theory of infant perseverative reaching , 2001, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[10]  Albert Yonas,et al.  Reaching as a measure of infant's spatial perception: A methodological overview , 1985 .

[11]  Marion A. Eppler,et al.  Development of perception of affordances. , 1993 .

[12]  E. Thelen,et al.  The transition to reaching: mapping intention and intrinsic dynamics. , 1993, Child development.

[13]  Michael T. Turvey,et al.  Chapter 11 – Dynamic Touch , 1995 .

[14]  R. Geuze,et al.  Motor development in early and later childhood: Longitudinal approaches , 1993 .

[15]  E. Thelen,et al.  A Method for Identifying the Initiation of Reaching Movements in Natural Prehension. , 1995, Journal of motor behavior.

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

[17]  S. Bennett,et al.  Perception of affordances of haptic information in children and adults , 1999 .

[18]  James Casey,et al.  Classical Mechanics: A Modern Perspective , 2002 .

[19]  W. Köhler.  The Mentality of Apes. , 2018, Nature.

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

[21]  Raoul M Bongers,et al.  Variations of Tool and Task Characteristics Reveal That Tool-Use Postures Are Anticipated , 2004, Journal of motor behavior.

[22]  M T Turvey,et al.  Haptically perceiving the distances reachable with hand-held objects. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[23]  S. Timoshenko,et al.  Mechanics of Materials, 3rd Ed. , 1991 .

[24]  M. E. McCarty,et al.  Problem solving in infancy: the emergence of an action plan. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[25]  Karl M. Newell,et al.  The acquisition of coordination: Preliminary analysis of learning to write , 1989 .

[26]  Elizabeth Bates,et al.  Perceptual aspects of tool using in infancy , 1980 .

[27]  J. Field.  Relation of Young Infants' Reaching Behavior to Stimulus Distance and Solidity. , 1976 .

[28]  Richard G. Carson,et al.  Spoon handling in two- to four year old children , 1997 .

[29]  Jeffrey B. Wagman,et al.  Affordances and Inertial Constraints on Tool Use , 2001 .

[30]  Albert Yonas,et al.  Reaching as a measure of infants' spatial perception. , 1985 .

[31]  D. Bakish,et al.  5-Ht1a Agonists, 5-Ht3 Antagonists and Benzodiazepines: Their Comparative Behavioural Pharmacology , 1991 .

[32]  W. Epstein,et al.  Perception of space and motion , 1995 .

[33]  Patricia Zukow-Goldring,et al.  Evolving explanations of development: Ecological approaches to organism–environment systems. , 1997 .

[34]  Norman A. Krasnegor,et al.  Measurement of Audition and Vision in the First Year of Postnatal Life: A Methodological Overview , 1985 .

[35]  K. Connolly,et al.  Motor development in early and later childhood: longitudinal approaches: Individual patterns of tool use by infants , 1993 .

[36]  E. Thelen,et al.  The developmental origins of bimanual coordination: a dynamic perspective. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[37]  Naoya Hirose,et al.  An ecological approach to embodiment and cognition , 2002, Cognitive Systems Research.

[38]  Anthony M. Avolio,et al.  Walking infants adapt locomotion to changing body dimensions. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[39]  M Lampl,et al.  Saltation and stasis: a model of human growth. , 1992, Science.

[40]  K C Hayes,et al.  Anticipatory postural control in children. , 1990, Journal of motor behavior.

[41]  M. Turvey.  Dynamic touch. , 1996, The American psychologist.

[42]  K. Connolly,et al.  The Emergence of a Tool-Using Skill in Infancy. , 1989 .

[43]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[44]  A. Smitsman,et al.  Geometries and Dynamics of a Rod Determine How It Is Used for Reaching , 2003, Journal of motor behavior.