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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion

Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion

Published on: January 15, 2016

Mind your step: learning to walk in complex environments.

Rachel Mowbray¹, Dorothy Cowie²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. rachel.mowbray@durham.ac.uk.

Experimental Brain Research

|May 15, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

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Young children balance personal skills and environmental challenges when walking. They demonstrate planning abilities, adapting foot placement to navigate complex obstacle courses safely and efficiently.

Area of Science:

Developmental psychology
Motor control
Biomechanics

Background:

Children must integrate self-related (skills) and environmental (obstacles) constraints for effective movement.
Understanding how young children manage these dual constraints is crucial for developmental insights.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how 3- to 5-year-old children accommodate self-related and environmental constraints during walking.
To test if children use dynamic scaling for foot placement variability and plan ahead in complex environments.

Main Methods:

Children and adults walked over obstacle sequences of varying complexity.
Foot placement relative to obstacles was measured to assess dynamic scaling and planning.

Main Results:

Keywords:

Development Obstacles Planning Walking

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Last Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion

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Published on: January 15, 2016

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Children partially used dynamic scaling in simple environments but employed less tailored margins of error in complex settings.
Children demonstrated planning by adjusting foot placement based on upcoming obstacles, similar to adults.

Conclusions:

Young children can simultaneously control self-related and environmental constraints during motor tasks.
This dual control enables flexible, safe, and efficient behavior even in complex environments.