The specificity of infants' exploratory actions to object properties was demonstrated in two studies with 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. The first study was an initial test of the hypothesis that infants would discriminate in their actions among objects that varied in weight, sound, texture, and other properties. The second study documented specificity between actions, table surface properties, and object properties. Both studies illustrate that providing infants with multiple action-relevant properties elicits a rich action repertoire. Infants tailor actions to particular object and table characteristics, and age differences suggest a developing economy of action and changing exploratory systems.Infants are curious animals. They explore the environment in order to discover its properties and to act on it. What is the nature and ontogeny of their exploration?One common hypothesis about infant exploration is that infants explore objects fairly indiscriminately until the age of 12 months (e.g.
What are the object properties that serve as a basis for the musical instrument classification system, and how do general and specific experience affect knowledge of these properties? In the first study, the multimodal quality of properties underlying children's and adults' perception was investigated. Subjects listened to solos and identified instruments producing the sounds. Even children who did not have experience with all the instruments correctly identified the family of instruments they were listening to. The hypothesis of the second study, that musical instrument families function as a "basic level" in the instrument taxonomy, was confirmed. Variation in the basic level with varying expertise was documented in the third study with musicians. In the fourth study, children and adults identified the source of sounds from unfamiliar objects, Chinese musical instruments. It is suggested that the concept of affordances may be relevant for understanding the importance for behavior of different levels of abstraction of category systems.
“Back to sleep” messages can reduce prone practice for infants, with potential for motor delay and cranial deformation. Despite recommendations for “tummy time,” young infants fuss in prone, and parents report uncertainty about how to help infants tolerate prone positioning. We hypothesized that a Child'Space Method lesson, teaching proprioceptive touch and transitions to prone, would facilitate prone tolerance, parent behavioral support, and parent self‐efficacy. This randomized study recruited parents (N = 37) of 2‐ to 5‐month‐old infants. On two visits, parents answered questions about infant behavior and parent experience, and played with their infant. Lesson group parents had the lesson following the first free play. One week later, lesson parents reported that infants tolerated more prone time and that parents showed more supportive behaviors in bringing infant to prone, as compared to waiting parents. Lesson parents’ efficacy, and infant behavior during play, trended in the hypothesized direction. The study demonstrated how a lesson in preparatory touch, and gradual transitions, promoted infant prone tolerance and also parent support of rolling, side‐lying, and prone positioning. The lesson could be incorporated in parent education and early pediatric visits, helping infants and parents negotiate the prone challenge and setting the stage for further parent support of infant development.
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