The Role of Target Distinctiveness in Infant Perseverative Reaching

Diedrich, Frederick J.; Highlands, Tonia M.; Spahr, Kimberly A.; Thelen, Esther; Smith, Linda B.

doi:10.1006/jecp.2000.2569

Cited by 54 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Previous work by Thelen and colleagues (2001) demonstrated that a dynamic field model of reaching behavior could capture infants' A-not-B performance. According to Thelen et al, infants' reaches in this task depend on the interaction between a long-term memory of past reaches to the A location and a memory of the cuing event at the B location (see also Diedrich, Highlands, Thelen & Smith, 2001;Diedrich, Thelen, Smith & Corbetta, 2000;Smith, Thelen, Titzer & McLin, 1999). Infants "fail" in this task because the memory of B is not robust and is dominated by the long-term memory of A; infants succeed in this task when they can effectively sustain the memory of B during short-term delays.…”

Section: Piaget's A-not-b Task In Infancymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this model effectively captured a host of data and generated novel predictions (e.g., Clearfield, Smith, Diedrich & Thelen, 2006;Diedrich, Clearfield, Smith & Thelen, 2007;Diedrich, et al, 2001;Diedrich, et al, 2000), it is limited in several respects. For instance, it does not address issues of how reference frames are calibrated and re-aligned during the task.…”

Section: Piaget's A-not-b Task In Infancymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales

Simmering¹,

Schutte²,

Spencer³

2008

Brain Research

115

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Within cognitive neuroscience, computational models are designed to provide insights into the organization of behavior while adhering to neural principles. These models should provide sufficient specificity to generate novel predictions while maintaining the generality needed to capture behavior across tasks and/or time scales. This paper presents one such model, the Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) of spatial cognition, showing new simulations that provide a demonstration proof that the theory generalizes across developmental changes in performance in four tasks-the Piagetian A-not-B task, a sandbox version of the A-not-B task, a canonical spatial recall task, and a position discrimination task. Model simulations demonstrate that the DFT can accomplish both specificity-generating novel, testable predictions-and generality-spanning multiple tasks across development with a relatively simple developmental hypothesis. Critically, the DFT achieves generality across tasks and time scales with no modification to its basic structure and with a strong commitment to neural principles. The only change necessary to capture development in the model was an increase in the precision of the tuning of receptive fields as well as an increase in the precision of local excitatory interactions among neurons in the model. These small quantitative changes were sufficient to move the model through a set of quantitative and qualitative behavioral changes that span the age range from 8 months to 6 years and into adulthood. We conclude by considering how the DFT is positioned in the literature, the challenges on the horizon for our framework, and how a dynamic field approach can yield new insights into development from a computational cognitive neuroscience perspective.

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Section: Piaget's A-not-b Task In Infancymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Piaget's A-not-b Task In Infancymentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales

Simmering¹,

Schutte²,

Spencer³

2008

Brain Research

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies coding the amount of time looking at each location (e.g., Bai & Bertenthal, 1992;Horobin & Acredolo, 1986;Landers, 1971) have found that increased attention to the A location is highly related to where infants reach. Similarly, altering the distinctiveness of the locations (Butterworth, Jarrett, & Hicks, 1982;Diedrich, Highlands, Spahr, Thelen, & Smith, 2001), adding (Munakata, 1997) or changing the salience of (Schuberth, Werner, & Lipsitt, 1978) a hidden object, or explicitly drawing attention to one location (Smith et al, 1999) all influence the likelihood of perseveration.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Common Coding of Observation and Execution of Action in 9-Month-Old Infants

Longo¹,

Bertenthal²

2006

Infancy

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Do 9-month-old infants motorically simulate actions they perceive others perform? Two experiments tested whether action observation, like overt reaching, is sufficient to elicit the Piagetian A-not-B error. Infants recovered a toy hidden at location A or observed an experimenter recover the toy. After the toy was hidden at location B, infants in both conditions perseverated in reaching to A, demonstrating that active search by the infant is not necessary for the A-not-B error. Consistent with prior research, infants displayed an ipsilateral bias when reaching, the so-called mysterious midline barrier. A similar ipsilateral bias was also observed depending on the manner in which the experimenter reached; infants perseverated following observation of ipsi-but not contralateral reaches by the experimenter. Thus, infants perseverated only following observation of actions they themselves were able to perform, suggesting that they coded others' actions in terms of motor simulation.The ability to represent and understand the behaviors of others is crucial for interacting effectively in our social world. Much of this understanding takes place with little awareness of the perceived actions or responses that are involved. When observing the behaviors of another, we tend to implicitly know their wants, desires, and intentions (Blakemore & Decety, 2001). Moreover, our responses are automatically shaped by these behaviors (Blakemore & Frith, 2005). Dating back at least to Darwin's (1872Darwin's ( /1965 observations of spectators at sporting events, researchers have commonly noted that people will automatically imitate actions they observe others perform. For example, we direct our gaze in the same direction we see another individual look (Driver et al., 1999), and we mimic the facial Correspondence should be addressed to Matthew R. Longo,

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“…This spatially guided behaviour has previously been described in infants as perseverative reaching towards one side of a presentation (e.g. Diedrich, Highlands, Spahr, Thelen & Smith, 2001 ;Hauf, Paulus & Baillargeon, 2011), which is best captured by an integrated approach to children's knowledge, task dynamics and internal processes (Smith & Thelen, 2003 ;Thelen, Schoner, Scheier & Smith, 2001). In this framework, responses are additionally motivated by factors beyond the participant's knowledge, such as motor memory and performance in previous trials.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers' comprehension of pronouns and reflexives: the impact of the task

2011

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Pronouns seem to be acquired in an asymmetrical way, where children confuse the meaning of pronouns with reflexives up to the age of six, but not vice versa. Children's production of the same referential expressions is appropriate at the age of four. However, response-based tasks, the usual means to investigate child language comprehension, are very demanding given children's limited cognitive resources. Therefore, they might affect performance. To assess the impact of the task, we investigated learners of Dutch (three- and four-year-olds) using both eye-tracking, a non-demanding on-line method, and a typical response-based task. Eye-tracking results show an emerging ability to correctly comprehend pronouns at the age of four. A response-based task fails to indicate this ability across age groups, replicating results of earlier studies. Additionally, biases seem to influence the outcome of the response-based task. These results add new evidence to the ongoing debate of the asymmetrical acquisition of pronouns and reflexives and suggest that there is less of an asymmetry than previously assumed.

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The Role of Target Distinctiveness in Infant Perseverative Reaching

Cited by 54 publications

References 24 publications

Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales

Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales

Common Coding of Observation and Execution of Action in 9-Month-Old Infants

Preschoolers' comprehension of pronouns and reflexives: the impact of the task

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