The coordination of infant's reaching, grasping, catching and posture: A natural physical approach

The point of departure of this chapter is the inseparability of perception and action. This coupling is approached from a developmental perspective. In order to lay a basis for this coupling, the concepts of affordances, laws of control, and the role of constraints on the development of coordination are discussed. The chapter continues with a search for empirical evidence from a natural physical perspective with respect to the development of reaching and posture. Informational (e.g., object size, time-to-contact information) and physical constraints (e.g., direction of the gravity force) are discussed. Further it is emphasized that postural stability is conditional for the coordination of reaching, catching and grasping. © 1993, Elsevier Science & Technology All rights reserved.