Developmental differences in infants' use of an object's shape to grasp it securely

Abstract

This study examined twenty two 11- and 13-month-old infants' approach and grasp of two objects-one symmetric and one asymmetric-in an effort to understand infants' use of shape information to plan motor action. At first contact, all infants grasped the asymmetrical object further from its center of mass than the symmetrical object. In addition, results highlighted developmental differences in infants' abilities to correct for less stable hand placements, to maintain control of the objects without dropping, strategies used to obtain the objects, and latencies to grasp the objects. Older infants showed more effective skills in each of the aforementioned areas. Implications for our understanding of the development of processing of visual information for action are discussed.

Haptic grasping configurations in early infancy reveal different developmental profiles for visual guidance of the Reach versus the Grasp

“…Even so, 24-month-old infants substantially attenuate Grasp closure compared with sighted adults and continue to complete the majority of Grasp closure after target contact. These results are in line with previous work (Barrett and Needham 2008;Hofsten and Rönnqvist 1988;Schum et al 2011) and suggest that visual control of the Grasp is substantially delayed and continues to mature beyond 24 months of age even though visual guidance of the Reach is largely mature at 11-12 months.…”

What Have We Learned About Learning? Reflections from Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

“…This enabled them prematurely to grab objects by simply swiping at them. When tested later, they showed increased visuo-motor coordination, and more mature grasping, than infants who were not given this unusual early Velcro experience (Needham, Barrett, & Peterman, 2002;Barrett & Needham, 2008). This suggests that even very young children use their prior sensory and motor experiences and expectations, when engaging with their environment, to a greater extent than previously believed, and that early experiences may have cascading consequences through development.…”

Effect of Weight Load Added to Wrists on Manual Non-Exploratory and Exploratory Behaviors in Infants

“…These gross exploratory actions require the infants to maintain control of the grasping while performing movements of the upper limb in order to move the object, in order to play with or gather information about it. As grasping, planning, and control are known to typically improve with age and experience ( von Hofsten & Rönnqvist, 1988 ;Fagard, 2000 ;Barrett & Needham, 2008 ), it is plausible that the infants found it easier to display more prehensile actions, such as the measured exploratory behaviors, at the 7 th and 6 th than at the 5 th month of age.…”

“…It is particularly important to investigate the eff ect of additional weight on object dropping because, in contrast to unsuccessful grasping assessed by Toledo, et al (2012 ), in which the infants failed to hold the object immediately after or just before touching it, object dropping during the performance of exploratory actions can refl ect the ability to control the object grasped into the hand while moving it and performing vigorous manual actions (i.e., waving, banging, etc.). In fact, object dropping is known to result from poor grasping control in infants ( Barrett & Needham, 2008 ). Thus, investigating object dropping when the infants' upper limbs are heavier can assess whether mechanical forces change the infants' ability to act upon grasped objects.…”