Abstract
Long-term changes in infants’ behavior as a result of active motor training were studied. Thirty-two infants completed three visits to the laboratory. At the first visit, infants were 3 months old and completed an object exploration assessment. Then the experimenter demonstrated the motor training procedures appropriate for the infant’s experimental condition, and parents took home custom infant mittens (either sticky or non-sticky) and a bag of lightweight toys to practice with their infants. Over the course of the following 2 weeks, infants participated in 10 sessions of either active (sticky) or passive (non-sticky) mittens training at home with their parents. Infants who participated in active mittens training wore mittens with the palms covered in Velcro, allowing them to pick up and move around small toys. Infants who participated in passive mittens training wore non-sticky mittens, and their parents moved the toys through their visual fields on their behalf. After completing the training, infants returned to the lab for the second visit. At visit two, infants participated in another object exploration assessment as well as a reaching assessment. Parents returned the training materials to the lab at the second visit, and were told not to continue any specific training regimen from this point forward. Two months later, when infants were about 5.5 months of age, they returned to the lab for a third visit. At the third visit, infants completed the same two assessments as during the second visit. The results of this study indicate that infants who participated in active motor training engaged in more sophisticated object exploration when compared to infants who received passive training. These findings are consistent with others in the literature showing that active motor training at 3 months of age facilitates the processes of object exploration and engagement. The current results and others reveal that the effects of early experience can last long after training ceases.
Highlights
IntroductionMany years ago, Held and Hein (1963) showed that visually inexperienced kittens learn to guide their actions more effectively after receiving active experience (which they controlled) than they did after receiving passive experience (which they did not control)
Many years ago, Held and Hein (1963) showed that visually inexperienced kittens learn to guide their actions more effectively after receiving active experience than they did after receiving passive experience
In our object exploration assessment, infants who participated in active mittens training showed significantly larger increases in looking and bimanual exploration, and they showed different patterns of reaching between visits one and three as compared to their peers who participated in passive mittens training
Summary
Many years ago, Held and Hein (1963) showed that visually inexperienced kittens learn to guide their actions more effectively after receiving active experience (which they controlled) than they did after receiving passive experience (which they did not control). These classic findings have led many researchers to consider the possibility that visual-motor experience that is controlled and observed by the same individual is critically important for effective learning about moving the body. They spend a lot of time on their backs engaging in social interactions (Lobo and Galloway, 2008) Once they begin reaching, infants’ opportunities for learning about objects increase dramatically. They begin making purposeful actions on objects and can see the consequences of these action attempts
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