Locomotor experience and use of social information are posture specific.

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of locomotor experience on infants’ perceptual judgments in a potentially risky situation—descending steep and shallow slopes—while manipulating social incentives to determine where perceptual judgments are most malleable. Twelve-month-old experienced crawlers and novice walkers were tested on an adjustable sloping walkway as their mothers encouraged and discouraged descent. A psychophysical procedure was used to estimate infants’ ability to crawl/walk down slopes, followed by test trials in which mothers encouraged and discouraged infants to crawl/walk down. Both locomotor experience and social incentives affected perceptual judgments. In the encourage condition, crawlers only attempted safe slopes within their abilities, but walkers repeatedly attempted impossibly risky slopes, replicating previous work. The discourage condition showed where judgments are most malleable. When mothers provided negative social incentives, crawlers occasionally avoided safe slopes, and walkers occasionally avoided the most extreme 50° increment, although they attempted to walk on more than half the trials. Findings indicate that both locomotor experience and social incentives play key roles in adaptive responding, but the benefits are specific to the posture that infants use for balance and locomotion.

El Desarrollo de la Marcha Infantil como Proceso de Aprendizaje [Children Gait Development as a Learning Process]

“…En este proceso, tienen además un importante papel la motivación, la percepción del riesgo y, en general, los procesos corticales superiores, con una relación recíproca entre la locomoción adaptativa y la cognición (Adolph, Tamis-LeMonda, Ishak, Karasik y Lobo, 2008;Cherng, Liang, Chen y Chen, 2009). Se ha demostrado que los límites y las ventajas para resolver problemas y la capacidad perceptiva y cognitiva afectan a la habilidad de los niños para moverse en un entorno cambiante, mientras que el desarrollo locomotor les ofrece nuevas oportunidades de aprendizaje sobre sí mismos, el medio que les rodea y la relación entre ambos (Berger y Adolph, 2007).…”

Fear of Heights in Infants?

“…Infants appear to enjoy the problem of deciding how to cope with obstacles. Likewise, on steep slopes, infants’ facial expressions and vocalizations are primarily positive or neutral, not negative, regardless of whether they go over the edge or avoid (Adolph, Tamis-LeMonda, Ishak, Karasik, & Lobo, 2008; Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2008). And there is no increase in negative expressions such as crying or clinging with infants’ age or locomotor experience.…”

“…Similarly, novice walkers step right into impossibly wide gaps (Adolph et al, 2011). In an experienced crawling posture, infants refuse to crawl down impossibly steep slopes or cliffs, but in a novice walking posture, they walk over the edge (Adolph, 1997; Adolph et al, 2008; Kretch & Adolph, 2013a). Specificity of learning between earlier and later developing postures is so robust that infants alternate between avoiding and plunging on consecutive trials when the experimenter starts them in an experienced or novice posture (Adolph, 1997).…”

“…After one trial, they figure out the illusion, and cross the deep side (Campos et al, 1978; Walk, 1966). When experienced crawlers and walkers are tested on modifiable apparatuses with no safety glass, they rarely err: Attempts to crawl or walk are matched to their abilities—they only attempt risky obstacles that are within 1–3 centimeters of their actual ability on real cliffs, gaps, and bridges, and within 2–6 degrees of slant on slopes (Adolph, 1997, 2000; Adolph et al, 2008; Kretch & Adolph, 2013a, 2013b). Moreover, experienced infants retain impressive accuracy when their abilities are altered with weighted shoulder-packs or slippery shoes (Adolph & Avolio, 2000; Adolph et al, 2010).…”

Improvement of balance of children with disorder of motor function by means of adapted physiotherapy

“…Participants who didn't have good or average posture per the W. K. Hoeger scale were excluded from the study. The posture was chosen as criteria for inclusion in the study because it's known that posture can affect the balance [19].…”