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What infants know and what they do: perceiving possibilities for walking through openings
John M Franchak1, Karen E Adolph
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. franchak@nyu.edu
Developmental Psychology
|March 7, 2012
Summary
Infants’ actions may not show what they know. While 17-month-olds got stuck in small openings, they avoided falling, showing sensitivity to fit based on penalties.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Infant Perception
- Motor Skills
Background:
- Infant decision-making may not always align with their knowledge.
- Understanding infant perception and action selection is crucial for developmental studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether 17-month-old infants accurately perceive their ability to fit through openings of varying widths.
- To determine if different penalty conditions influence infants' action selection despite similar perceptual sensitivity.
Main Methods:
- 17-month-old infants were tested on their ability to navigate through openings of different sizes.
- Two penalty conditions were introduced: risk of entrapment and risk of falling.
- Perceptual sensitivity was measured independently of action selection.
Main Results:
- Infants became stuck in openings that were too small, indicating inaccurate action selection under the entrapment penalty.
- Infants accurately selected actions to avoid falling, demonstrating perceptual sensitivity to fitting.
- Perceptual measures were consistent across both penalty conditions.
Conclusions:
- Infant action selection is influenced by the perceived consequences of errors, not solely by perceptual limitations.
- Infants possess perceptual sensitivity to fitting through openings, but this is modulated by penalty conditions.
- Developmental research should consider situational factors affecting how infants demonstrate their knowledge.
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