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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
Published on: June 1, 2015
Adaptation to separate kinematic and dynamic transformations in children and adults
Petra Jansen-Osmann1, Stefanie Richter, Thomas Schinauer
1Dept of Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University of Dusseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
The question addressed in the present study is whether children and adults are able to combine and decompose separate kinematic (visual-feedback-shift) and dynamic (velocity-dependent force) transformations in goal-directed arm movements. A total of 64 participants (32 adults and 32 children) performed horizontal forearm movements using a single-joint arm manipulandum. When participants first learned kinematic and dynamic transformations separately, target error decreased in a subsequent combined transformation task. This effect was based on previous learning of the kinematic transformation. When they first learned the combined transformation, target error was smaller in the following kinematic-but not in the dynamic-transformation. No difference was found in adaptation performance between children and adults. The results suggest that there are two separate models for the kinematic and dynamic transformation and that a possible differentiation of kinematic and dynamic features of the motor task might already be present at age 11.
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