Anticipatory reaching of seven- to eleven-month-old infants in occlusion situations

M van Wermeskerken, J. van der Kamp, A.F. te Velde, A.V. Valero-Garcia, M.J.M. Hoozemans, G.J.P. Savelsbergh

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    Abstract

    The present study examined 7- to 11-month-old infants' anticipatory and reactive reaching for temporarily occluded objects. Infants were presented with laterally approaching objects that moved at different velocities (10, 20, and 40. cm/s) in different occlusion situations (no-, 20. cm-, and 40. cm-occlusion), resulting in occlusion durations ranging between 0 and 4. s. Results show that except for object velocity and occlusion distance, occlusion duration was a critical constraint for infants' reaching behaviors. We found that the older infants reached more often, but that an increase in occlusion duration resulted in a decline in reaching frequency that was similar across age groups. Anticipatory reaching declined with increasing occlusion duration, but the adverse effects for longer occlusion durations diminished with age. It is concluded that with increasing age infants are able to retain and use information to guide reaching movements over longer periods of non-visibility, providing support for the graded representation hypothesis (Jonsson & von Hofsten, 2003) and the two-visual systems model (Milner & Goodale, 1995). © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)45-54
    JournalInfant Behavior and Development
    Volume34
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

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