Cue salience and infant perseverative reaching: tests of the dynamic field theory

• Published in: Developmental science Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 26 - 40
• Main Authors: Clearfield, Melissa W., Dineva, Evelina, Smith, Linda B., Diedrich, Frederick J., Thelen, Esther
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-01-2009; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Attention - physiology; Babies; Behavior - physiology; Child Development; Child Development - physiology; Cognition - physiology; Cues; Developmental psychology; Error Patterns; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant Behavior; Infants; Male; Memory; Memory - physiology; Models, Psychological; Perceptual Motor Learning; Predictions; Space Perception - physiology; Stimuli; Task Analysis; Task Performance and Analysis; Theories; Theory; Time Factors (Learning); Visual Stimuli
• ISSN: 1363-755X; 1467-7687
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00769.x

Skilled behavior requires a balance between previously successful behaviors and new behaviors appropriate to the present context. We describe a dynamic field model for understanding this balance in infant perseverative reaching. The model predictions are tested with regard to the interaction of two aspects of the typical perseverative reaching task: the visual cue indicating the target and the memory demand created by the delay imposed between cueing and reaching. The memory demand was manipulated by imposing either a 0‐ or a 3‐second delay, and the salience of the cue to reach was systematically varied. Infants demonstrated fewer perseverative errors at 0‐delay versus 3‐second delay based on the cue salience, such that a more salient visual cue was necessary to overcome a longer delay. These results have important implications for understanding both the basic perceptual‐motor processes that produce reaching in infants and skilled flexible behavior in general.