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Response modality affects human infant delayed-response performance
1Yale University, New Haven, CT 065208205, USA.
Insights
Infant object permanence understanding improves with age. Gaze responses are more accurate than reach responses in delayed response tasks, reducing errors like the A-not-B error.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Infant Psychology
- Developmental Neuroscience
Background:
- Understanding object permanence is crucial for cognitive development.
- Infants' ability to track hidden objects develops over the first year of life.
- The role of response modality in early cognitive tasks is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of response modality (gaze vs. reach) on infant delayed response performance.
- To examine age-related changes in object permanence and error patterns.
- To explore the influence of response modality on perseverative errors and side biases.
Main Methods:
- Assessed delayed response performance in 120 infants aged 5-11 months using object hiding tasks.
- Compared accuracy and error types (e.g., A-not-B error) between gaze and reach response conditions.
- Analyzed age-related trends and modality-specific effects on performance.
Main Results:
- Performance improved significantly with age across all conditions.
- Gaze responses were more accurate than reach responses, particularly when gaze and reach directions differed.
- Infants in the reach condition made more A-not-B errors and showed increased perseverative responding, suggesting modality-specific priming effects.
Conclusions:
- Response modality significantly impacts delayed response performance in infants.
- Gaze-based responses appear more robust and less prone to certain errors than reach-based responses.
- Findings highlight the importance of considering motor output in assessing early cognitive abilities.
Abstract:
Delayed response performance was assessed in 120 7-, 9-, and 11-month-old infants with correct response defined as either retrieval of a hidden object or gaze toward the location where the object was hidden. Performance improved with age, was above chance for each age group in each condition, and was more often correct with the gaze response. When direction of gaze and reach differed, direction of gaze was more likely to be correct. Infants in the reach condition were more likely to fail to reverse a previously correct response (i.e., to make the A-not-B error). Perseverative responding occurred frequently and was more likely in the reach than the gaze condition. This effect emerged primarily in the context of an incorrect response, which suggests modality-specific sensitivity to the effect of priming rather than reinforcement. Many infants showed strong side biases, and there was a tendency for more reaches to the left but gazes to the right. In a second experiment, 12 5-month-olds gazed toward the correct location more frequently than would be expected by chance but failed to reverse a previously correct response more often than older infants. These findings indicate that response modality has a significant effect on delayed-response performance.