Children's Road Crossing: A Window Into Perceptual–Motor Development

ABSTRACT— Most research on perceptual–motor development has focused on changes occurring during infancy and toddlerhood. In this paper, we describe our work on the development of perceptual–motor development during late childhood and early adolescence in the context of an important applied problem: bicycling across traffic-filled roads. Specifically, we have examined the gaps between cars that children and adults accept when bicycling across intersections, using an immersive, interactive bicycling simulator. This work highlights both methodological advances in using immersive, interactive virtual environments to study perceptual–motor functioning as well as theoretical advances in understanding the problem of moving the self in relation to other moving objects. We conclude with ideas for future research and practical implications of this work.     

Preparing for the 21st Century: Some Goals and Challenges for Studies of Infant Sensory and Perceptual Development

While acknowledging that there has been enormous progress in our understanding of sensory and perceptual development in human infancy over the past three decades, this paper looks toward future directions in preparation for the 21st century. It is argued that investigators should move away from the categorical thinking that dominates the field and focus more on developmental process in studying the acquisition of perceptual skills. Also, more attention should be paid to the functional role of perceptual skills and less to demonstrations of discrimination. In addition, researchers should attempt to bring their work and conceptualizations more in line with that on adults and older children. Future work on sensory and perceptual development in infancy will be heavily influenced by our understanding of how the brain works, especially with refinements in brain imaging and neurophysiology and with developments in computational modeling of perceptual processes. Finally, it is likely that there will be increased application of research findings to such problems as identification of infants at risk.     

Continuity in social cognition from infancy to childhood

Research examining the development of social cognition has largely been divided into two areas: infant perception of intentional agents, and preschoolers’ understanding of others’ mental states and beliefs (theory of mind). Many researchers have suggested that there is continuity in social cognitive development such that the abilities observed in infancy are related to later preschool ability, yet little empirical evidence exists for this claim. Here, we present preliminary evidence that capacities specific to the social domain contribute to performance in social cognition tasks both during infancy and in early childhood. Specifically, looking time patterns in an infant social cognition task correlated with preschool theory of mind; however, no such relationship was found for infants in a nonsocial cognition task.     

Neuroimaging the sleeping brain: Insight on memory functioning in infants and toddlers

Episodic memory, or the ability to remember past events with specific detail, is central to the human experience and is related to learning and adaptive functioning in a variety of domains. In typically developing children, episodic memory emerges during infancy and improves during early childhood and beyond. Developmental processes within the hippocampus are hypothesized to be primarily responsible for both the early emergence and persistence of episodic memory in late infancy and early childhood. However, these hypotheses are based on non-human models. In-vivo investigations in early human development of hippocampal processes have been significantly limited by methodological challenges in acquiring neuroimaging data, particularly task-related functional neuroimaging data, from infants and toddlers. Recent studies in adults have shown neural activity in the brain regions supporting episodic memory during slow-wave sleep using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and fMRI has been increasingly utilized in infancy and early childhood to address other research questions. We review initial evidence and present preliminary data showing the promise of this approach for examining hippocampal contribution to how infants and toddlers remember individual events, and their association with information about the context in which the event occurred. Overall, our review, integrated with the presentation of some preliminary data provides insight on leveraging sleep to gain new perspectives on early memory functioning.     

Infant speech perception and cognitive skills as predictors of later vocabulary

Research has identified bivariate correlations between speech perception and cognitive measures gathered during infancy as well as correlations between these individual measures and later language outcomes. However, these correlations have not all been explored together in prospective longitudinal studies. The goal of the current research was to compare how early speech perception and cognitive skills predict later language outcomes using a within-participant design. To achieve this goal, we tested 97 5- to 7-month-olds on two speech perception tasks (stress pattern preference, native vowel discrimination) and two cognitive tasks (visual recognition memory, A-not-B) and later assessed their vocabulary outcomes at 18 and 24 months. Frequentist statistical analyses showed that only native vowel discrimination significantly predicted vocabulary. However, Bayesian analyses suggested that evidence was ambiguous between null and alternative hypotheses for all infant predictors. These results highlight the importance of recognizing and addressing challenges related to infant data collection, interpretation, and replication in the developmental field, a roadblock in our route to understanding the contribution of domain-specific and domain-general skills for language acquisition. Future methodological development and research along similar lines is encouraged to assess individual differences in infant speech perception and cognitive skills and their predictability for language development.     

Development of brain functional connectivity and its relation to infant sustained attention in the first year of life

The study of brain functional connectivity is crucial to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the improved behavioral performance and amplified ERP responses observed during infant sustained attention. Previous investigations on the development of functional brain connectivity during infancy are primarily confined to the use of functional and structural MRI techniques. The current study examined the relation between infant sustained attention and brain functional connectivity and their development during infancy with high‐density EEG recordings. Fifty‐nine infants were tested at 6 (N = 15), 8 (N =14), 10 (N = 17), and 12 (N = 13) months. Infant sustained attention was defined by measuring infant heart rate changes during infants’ looking. Functional connectivity was estimated from the electrodes on the scalp and with reconstructed cortical source activities in brain regions. It was found that infant sustained attention was accompanied by attenuated functional connectivity in the dorsal attention and default mode networks in the alpha band. Graph theory analyses showed that there was an increase in path length and a decrease in clustering coefficient during infant sustained attention. The functional connectivity within the visual, somatosensory, dorsal attention, and ventral attention networks and graph theory measures of path length and clustering coefficient were found to increase with age. These findings suggest that infant sustained attention is accompanied by distinct patterns of brain functional connectivity. The current findings also suggest the rapid development of functional connectivity in brain networks during infancy.     

Potential consequences of abandonment in preschool-age: Neuropsychological findings in institutionalized children

Objective: Several longitudinal studies had shown that early deprivation and institutionalization during the first six months of life affects the emotional, cognitive, social and neurophysiologic development. Nevertheless, our understanding of possible similar effects of delayed institutionalization, in preschool-age remains unclear to this day. The goal of this study is to evaluate the cognitive performance of institutionalized children with history of preschool-age physical abandonment. Method: 18 male institutionalized children with history of abandonment during the preschool-age (2-5 years old) and comparison group matched by age, handedness, gender, educational and socioeconomic level were tested on multiple tasks of attention, memory and executive functions. Results: We found a cognitive impairment in the institutionalized children in several measures of attention, memory and executive functions. This is the first report of cognitive impairment related to late abandonment and institutionalization effects (after 2 years old), extending the already known effects on early institutionalization. Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that environmental factors including abandonment and institutional care, can affect not only the infancy period, but also the preschool period providing new insights into our understanding of neurocognitive development.     

Becoming uniquely human? Comparing chimpanzee to human infancy

Does comparing behavioral development between chimpanzees and humans during infancy hold the key to understanding what is uniquely human? Recent work shows that while many behaviors emerge at similar ages in chimpanzees, human infants develop behavioral traits underpinning our prosocial and ultra-cooperative nature at a much accelerated rate.     

Stronger neural dynamics capture changes in infants' visual working memory capacity over development

Visual working memory (VWM) capacity has been studied extensively in adults, and methodological advances have enabled researchers to probe capacity limits in infancy using a preferential looking paradigm. Evidence suggests that capacity increases rapidly between 6 and 10 months of age. To understand how the VWM system develops, we must understand the relationship between the looking behavior used to study VWM and underlying cognitive processes. We present a dynamic neural field model that captures both real-time and developmental processes underlying performance. Three simulation experiments show how looking is linked to VWM processes during infancy and how developmental changes in performance could arise through increasing neural connectivity. These results provide insight into the sources of capacity limits and VWM development more generally.     

Presidential address: Lessons from infancy: New beginnings in a changing world and a morality for health

Health care professionals working in infancy are optimistic about its development and its incentives for moral connectedness. Recent research shows that such an attitude is grounded in what I summarize under the headings of “fundamental modes of development” and a “basic morality,” features that characterize infancy when there is adequate support from an emotionally available caregiver. Early moral attainments include the infant's developing sense of rules, reciprocity, empathy, and internalized standards. Social referencing, negotiation, and the use of guidance are important processes in late infancy that occur in the context of interpersonal and intrapsychic conflict. Infancy experiences guided by these processes later become a basis for the preschooler's sharing, negotiation, and sense of fairness. These considerations provide lessons for thinking about health as a positive state. They also highlight the importance of positive emotions and shared meaning as we work to prevent and treat developmental problems. We have much to learn from infants and each other, especially as we continue our cross-cultural collaboration and research.     

Global and Functional: Mandler's Perceptual and Conceptual Processes in Infancy

Mandler's distinction between perceptual categorization and conceptual categorization in infancy provides an important reconciliation of the conflicting data and contributes to our theoretical understanding of the development of thought in the early years of life. It is argued, however, that subsequent processes during the word learning period that follows reflect functional differentiations and slot-filler hierarchical organization.     

婴儿对语音和非语音的感知:认知和神经机制

婴儿听觉感知能力的发展对于他们未来的语言学习和社会化都具有重要意义。过去大量的研究主要关注语音感知方面,只有较少的研究将非语音感知纳入考虑之中,但了解非语音感知的特征和机制将有助于增加研究者对听觉加工以及儿童发育的认识。该文分别介绍了婴儿语音感知中的三种偏好——对语音、“婴儿语”和母语的偏好,并尝试着将非语音分为音乐、人类的非言语发声、环境声音三类进行阐述。通过对比这两大类声音的感知得到婴儿可能存在语音感知的左脑偏侧化和音乐感知的右脑偏侧化现象,但这也尚存争议,目前有特定领域模型、特定线索模型和脑网络模型三种理论对偏侧化现象的认知机制进行解释。     

Keeping the “cognitive” in cognitive neuroscience, the “affective” in affective neuroscience, and the “behavioral” in behavioral neuroscience: The CABN mission for the next five years

The fields of cognitive, affective, and behavioral neuroscience have been with us for many years now, and have served to spawn an ever growing body of research that has helped to clarify the mechanisms by which the brain gives rise to the diverse processes that govern our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. These fields of research have grown exponentially as more and more tools have become available for invasive and noninvasive measures of brain function in both humans and animals, and as information about the human and animal genomes has increased. These advances in neurosciencebased tools have clearly advanced our knowledge and understanding of brain—behavior relationships. However, there is also a danger that lurks in the shadows of these methodological and empirical advances. This danger is that the enticement of understanding neural processes sometimes leads us to forget about the exact phenomena that we ultimately wish to understand and explain—namely, cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes. What do I mean by danger? I mean the concern that we often seem to prioritize the sophistication of our neural and genetic tools and theorizing over our psychological tools and theorizing, and that we may overlook the absence of linkage between neural (e.g., imaging results at a range of levels) or genetic findings and well—grounded psychological theories about specific cognitive, affective, or behavioral mechanisms. In other words, we can be seduced by the “call of the brain mechanism,” without a reminder of the phenomena we wish to explain.     

Qualitative and quantitative measures of joint attention development in the first year of life: A scoping review

Joint attention (JA) is the purposeful coordination of an individual's focus of attention with that of another and begins to develop within the first year of life. Delayed, or atypically developing, JA is an early behavioural sign of many developmental disabilities and so assessing JA in infancy can improve our understanding of trajectories of typical and atypical development. This scoping review identified the most common methods for assessing JA in the first year of life. Methods of JA were divided into qualitative and quantitative categories. Out of an identified 13,898 articles, 106 were selected after a robust search of four databases. Frequent methods used were eye-tracking, electroencephalography, behavioural coding, and the Early Social Communication Scale (ECSC). These methods were used to assess JA in typically and atypically developing infants in the first year of life. This study provides a comprehensive review of the past and current state of measurement of JA in the literature, the strengths and limitations of the measures used, and the next steps to consider for researchers interested in investigating JA to strengthen this field going forwards.     

Continuity and change in the measurement of infant attachment: comment on Fraley and Spieker (2003)

R.C. Fraley and S.J. Spieker (2003) refocused attention on the important question of continuous versus categorical measurement of infant attachment. This commentary begins with a brief response to Fraley and Spieker's position. Next, it highlights the usefulness of the categorical approach by reviewing some of the major advances in the field that have been fostered by a categorical approach. These include the identification of the disorganized attachment group, the development of the concept of conditional behavioral strategies, the creation of systems for coding attachment beyond infancy, and a greater understanding of cross-generational associations. The author then makes several propositions for future research that are necessary for clarifying how best to measure infant attachment.     

The Baby Care Questionnaire: A measure of parenting principles and practices during infancy

The current report provides a new framework to explore the role of parenting practices and principles during infancy. We identify structure and attunement as key parenting principles during infancy. Structure represents reliance on regularity and routines in daily life. Attunement represents reliance on infant cues and close physical contact. We suggest parents’ relative endorsement of these parenting principles is related to their choices about practices such as feeding, holding and night-time sleeping. We designed the Baby Care Questionnaire to measure parents’ endorsement of structure and attunement, as well as their daily parenting practices. We report data demonstrating the factor structure, reliability and validity of the BCQ. The BCQ, to our knowledge, is the first comprehensive measure of parenting practices and principles during infancy. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for the measure.     

Initial internal reliability and descriptive statistics for a brief assessment tool for the Life Skills Training drug-abuse prevention program

Adolescent drug use in the United States remains the highest in the industrialized world. Fortunately there have been significant advances in developing effective prevention programs for adolescent drug use. An important issue in evaluating such programs is that the self-report surveys have adequate psychometric properties and assess constructs targeted by an intervention. A questionnaire focusing on knowledge and drug-related measures was developed to evaluate the research-based Life Skills Training drug prevention intervention. The questionnaire showed good internal reliability, detected change from pretest to posttest, and was brief and easy to complete by 45 middle-school students.     

Object knowledge in infancy: current controversies and approaches

Studies relying on looking-time measures have found evidence of a far more precocious understanding of hidden objects than Piaget originally described. However, there is now a heated controversy surrounding the results from looking-time studies - do they constitute any evidence of a conceptual or explicit understanding of objects? Moreover, even within the looking-time paradigm, young infants show rapid changes in their understanding of what constitutes a legitimate occlusion event, and in their ability to use feature information to individuate or keep track of the number of hidden objects. The picture that emerges from these studies is that young infants have a limited and sometimes fragmented understanding of hidden objects. We suggest that computational modelling could help provide a coherent account of the emergence of object-directed behaviours in infancy, although the fit between current models and existing data remains poor.     

Associations between gross motor and communicative development in at-risk infants

Infants’ advances in locomotion relate to advances in communicative development. However, little is known about these relations in infants at risk for delays in these domains and whether they may extend to earlier achievements in gross motor development in infancy. We examined whether advances in sitting and prone locomotion are related to communicative development in infants who have an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are at risk for motor and communication delays (heightened-risk; HR). We conducted a longitudinal study with 37 HR infants who did not receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months. Infants were observed monthly between the ages of 5 and 14 months. We assessed gross motor development using the Alberta Infant Motor Scales (AIMS) and recorded ages of onset of verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors. Results indicated increased presence of early gross motor delay from 5 to 10 months. In addition, there were positive relations between sitting and gesture and babble onset and between prone development and gesture onset. Thus, links between gross motor development and communication extend to at-risk development and provide a starting point for future research on potential cascading consequences of motor advances on communication development.