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Updated: Jul 25, 2025
11:18
Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
Published on: June 1, 2015
10.7K
Learning to Move in a Changing Body in a Changing World
Whitney G Cole1, Karen E Adolph1
1Department of Psychology, New York University, 4 Washington Place, NY 10003, USA.
Integrative and Comparative Biology
|June 25, 2023
Summary
Variability in infant development, including walking, is crucial for learning adaptive behaviors. This natural variation, both internal and external, trains infants to navigate complex environments throughout life.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Motor Control
- Ecological Systems Theory
Background:
- Traditionally, variability in development is viewed as a hindrance to skill acquisition.
- Infant motor development, such as learning to walk, occurs amidst significant change and unpredictability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the traditional view of variability as a problem in early development.
- To propose that variability is a fundamental feature enabling adaptive behavior throughout the lifespan.
- To re-examine infant motor learning through a developmental, ecological, systems perspective.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of infant walking behavior in naturalistic settings.
- Observational studies focusing on self-initiated locomotion and environmental interactions.
- Application of a developmental, ecological, systems approach to understand motor skill acquisition.
Main Results:
- Infant walking practice is characterized by immense variability in path, direction, and timing.
- Physical growth and environmental changes continuously alter biomechanical constraints for locomotion.
- Infants' self-generated practice includes short bursts, curved paths, varied directions, and frequent falls.
Conclusions:
- Variability in early life is essential for developing a flexible, adaptive perceptual-motor system.
- Infants learn to learn by adapting to changing conditions, rather than mastering fixed skills.
- Relying on artificial constraints in research may distort our understanding of adaptive behavior origins.
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