Constrained motor-perceptual task in infancy: effects of sensory modality

The authors examined the relative success of varying sensory stimulation modalities that they presented via a mobile reinforcement procedure for promoting left-knee extensions in 3-month-old infants. They separated 53 infants into 5 groups. Four groups received contingent unimodal auditory, enhanced auditory, or visual reinforcement or contingent bimodal auditory plus visual (aud + vis) reinforcement. One group (controls) received aud + vis noncontingent reinforcement. The group that received aud + vis contingent reinforcement was most successful in learning the motor task and maintained the highest attention levels. The authors observed few differences in learning and attention within the unimodal groups. The present findings confirm the effectiveness of contingent multisensory stimulation for promoting perception-action coupling in infancy.