Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration

Abstract

The onset of independent prehension marks the beginning of infants’ direct interaction with the physical world. The success infants have in contacting objects with their hands and arms can have both visual and auditory consequences; objects may move and collide with other objects or fall onto table surfaces. Seeing and hearing these events could have important consequences for infants’ learning about objects and their subsequent behavior toward objects. The current research assessed the effects of brief object manipulation experiences and how a specific characteristic of training, auditory feedback produced by hard plastic toys colliding with a tabletop surface, affects pre-reaching infants’ subsequent object exploration. In Experiment 1, infants participated in either active “sticky” mittens training or passive “nonsticky” mittens training with a set of toys; before and after this experience, infants explored a teether. Results showed that infants participating in active training increased looking toward and sustained touching of the teether from pre- to post-training, whereas infants receiving passive training decreased their looking toward and touching of the teether following training. To investigate whether infants’ exploration behaviors were related to the amount of auditory feedback produced by the objects during training, in Experiment 2 data were collected from infants who received active sticky mittens training that had either more or less auditory feedback potential. Results showed more robust increases in infants’ exploratory activity from pre- to post-training in the more auditory feedback condition compared with infants’ exploratory activity in the less auditory feedback condition. These findings support the idea that active control of objects, including experiencing contingent feedback through multiple sensory modalities, promotes the development of object exploration during early infancy.