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Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
Published on: June 1, 2015
Infants' object interactions are long and complex during everyday joint engagement
Jacob L Schatz1, Catalina Suarez-Rivera1, Brianna E Kaplan1
1Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York, USA.
Mothers' multimodal engagement, including touching and talking about objects, significantly increases infant object interaction complexity and duration. Action-orienting talk specifically enhances play length and sophistication.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Learning
- Child-Caregiver Interaction
Background:
- Infants learn about objects through interaction.
- Caregiver involvement, including talking and actions, is crucial during infant play.
- The impact of maternal engagement on infant object interaction dynamics is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if maternal joint engagement correlates with changes in infant object interaction complexity and duration.
- To examine the specific effects of maternal multimodal input and action-orienting talk on infant play.
Main Methods:
- Observed 38 mother-infant dyads (13, 18, 23 months) during 2-hour free play sessions.
- Behavioral coding analyzed infant object interactions, distinguishing between simple and complex play.
- Quantified maternal multimodal input (touching, gesturing, talking) and action-orienting talk.
Main Results:
- Complex play bouts were longer than simple play bouts.
- Maternal multimodal input significantly increased the complexity and duration of infant play bouts.
- Action-orienting talk, compared to general talk, was associated with longer and more complex play.
- Maternal input extended play duration, independent of the amount of time mothers were available.
Conclusions:
- Maternal multimodal engagement dynamically shapes infant object interaction.
- Caregiver input, particularly action-oriented communication, plays a vital role in extending and enriching infant play experiences.
- Real-time maternal engagement influences the moment-to-moment exploration of objects by infants.
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