Development of the Correspondence Between Real and Imagined Fine and Gross Motor Actions

The development of the correspondence between real and imagined motor actions was investigated in 2 experiments. Experiment 1 evaluated whether children imagine body position judgments of fine motor actions in the same way as they perform them. Thirty-two 8-year-old children completed a task in which an object was presented in different orientations, and children were asked to indicate the position of their hand as they grasped and imagined grasping the object. Children’s hand position was almost identical for the imagined- and real-grasping trials. Experiment 2 replicated this result with 8-year-olds as well as 6-year-olds and also assessed the development of the correspondence of the chronometry of real and imagined gross motor actions. Sixteen 6-year-old children and seventeen 8-year-old children participated in the fine motor grasping task from Experiment 1 and a gross motor task that measured the time it took for children to walk and imagine walking different distances. Six-year-olds showed more of a difference between real and imagined walking than did 8-year-olds. However, there were strong correlations between real and imagined grasping and walking for both 6- and 8-year-old children, suggesting that by at least 6 years of age, motor imagery and real action may involve common internal representations and that motor imagery is important for motor control and planning.     

Multiple measures of hand-use lateralization in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

Evaluated a free-ranging matriline of 13 ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) from videotaped records for lateralized hand use with 2 tasks and 4 measures: food reaching, feeding posture, duration of food holding, and manipulation of food between mouth and hand while eating. Binomial z scores determined 7 lemurs to be left preferent in reaching, 3 right, and 3 ambipreferent. Ideographic analyses suggested possible sex-linked and early experience twin effects. When compared to right and ambipreferent lemurs, left reach preferent lemurs used the left hand more but bimanuals grasped less in food holding and also engaged in less hand-mouth food manipulation. The tendency to manipulate food was not correlated with bimanual holding but was inversely related to left hand holding and directly related to right hand holding. These patterns are discussed as possible precursors of human bimanual manipulation.     

Development of prehension between 5 and 10 years of age: distance scaling, grip aperture, and sight of the hand

The authors investigated whether 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 75) differ from adults (N = 12) in the developmental course of distance scaling and the adaptations to the inability to see the hand during prehension movements. The children reached under a surface and grasped and lifted an object suspended through it. All children scaled velocity appropriately for movement distance, both with and without sight of the hand. However, 5- to 6-year-old children did not increase grip aperture with increased distance, whereas older children and adults did. The older children and adults spent longer after peak deceleration when they could not see the hand, and maximum grip aperture (MGA) was larger, providing an increased safety margin. Children aged 5 to 6 spent the same amount of time between peak deceleration and grasp, whether or not they could see the hand, and they failed to increase MGA when they could not see the hand. Prehension in the younger children differed from that of older children in two ways: The younger children did not integrate reach and grasp over different distances and did not use visual information about hand position to optimize accuracy.     

Contextual sensitivity in young children's drawings

Previous research has examined the characteristic errors made by young children when drawing from a three-dimensional array. The aim of the present research was to investigate the influence of context in copying tasks. In a series of three experiments children between the ages of 4 and 7 years were presented with contrasting models to copy. These included cups and sugar bowls in various combinations and orientations. In each experiment the children's copies were scored for inclusion or omission of the occluded handle on the model. The results showed that nearly one third of the children did not respond consistently by either copying accurately or by always including the occluded handle. Instead the findings pointed to a large group of children whose responses were directed by the type of context present within the arrays.     

Situated embodied cognition: Monitoring orientation cues affects product evaluation and choice

Consumers generally prefer products that are easy to interact with. In three studies, we show that this preference arises from the fit between product orientation and monitored situational constraints. Flexible right-handers, who monitor situational constraints, recall product orientations better and prefer products for which the handle is oriented in the direction of the hand used for grasping. When their ability to monitor situational constraints is impaired, the preference for easy-to-grasp products is attenuated. The findings highlight that motor fluency is a relevant cue for decision making when consumers assess how to interact with a product. The implications of these results for embodiment and fluency research are discussed.     

Visual guidance for hand advance but not hand withdrawal in a reach-to-eat task in adult humans: reaching is a composite movement

Many animal species use reaching for food to place in the mouth (reach-to-eat) with a hand, and it may be a primitive movement. Although researchers (I. Q. Whishaw, 2005; A. N. Iwaniuk & I. Q. Whishaw, 2000; M. Gentiluci, I. Toni, S. Chieffi, & G. Pavesi, 1994) have described visual guidance of reaching in both normal and brain-injured human and nonhuman primates, researchers have not described the contribution of vision during advance of the limb to grasp food and during withdrawal of the limb with food to the mouth. To evaluate visual contributions, the authors monitored eye movements in young adults as they reached for food with and without vision. Participants visually engaged the target prior to the 1st hand movement and disengaged it as the food was grasped. Visual occlusion slowed limb advance and altered digit shaping but did not affect withdrawal. The dependence on visual control of advance but not withdrawal suggests that the reach-to-eat movement is a composite of 2 basic movements under visual and tactile/proprioceptive guidance, respectively.     

Are young children's drawings canonically biased?

In a between-subjects design, 4- to 6-year-olds were asked to draw from three-dimensional (3D) models, two-and-a-half-dimensional (212D) models with or without depth cues, or two-dimensional (2D) models of a familiar object (a saucepan) in noncanonical orientations (handle at the back or at the front). Results showed that canonical errors were produced mainly by the youngest children in the 3D models copying condition. A large proportion of errors did not, however, reflect biases toward the participants' "own" view of the object; rather, these errors reflected biases toward their "best" view of the object. Drawing from models having fewer than three dimensions resulted in a significant increase in view-specific productions in all children for the back orientation. When a more complex front orientation of the object was proposed, sensitivity to model type developed gradually with age. Results are discussed in terms of the flexibility of the mental model that mediates between children's perception of a model object and the depiction decisions.     

Predictors of disinhibited eating in children with and without overweight

OBJECTIVE: This study examined how 7-13-year-old children with and without overweight respond to free access to snack food in the absence of hunger and whether this eating behaviour could be predicted by parental feeding strategies and child's characteristics. METHODS: A total of 52 children (26 normal weight and 26 overweight children) were exposed to snack food after consuming a typical meal. Parental feeding practices and child's variables were assessed via self-report. RESULTS: Two-third of the sample ate of the presented snacks and consumed an average of 68 g. Overweight boys consumed twice as much than the normal weight boys. Parental feeding strategies did not contribute to the prediction of this eating behaviour. Regardless of the children's weight status, the child's eating style strongly predicted snack intake. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that overweight boys show difficulties in regulating their eating behaviour. Inconsistent with previous work, no evidence for parental contribution of snack intake was found. The present findings suggest that in older children especially children's own eating style account for the variance in snack eating behaviour.     

Teacher attitudes toward educational and psychological services for conduct problem children

Ninety-nine teachers participated in a survey designed to assess teacher attitudes toward and experience with a variety of strategies for dealing with conduct problem children in regular classes. Results indicated that (a) a majority of teachers favored placing conduct problem children in regular rather than special classes; (b) current sources of assistance (school psychologists, clinical psychologists, principals, parents, and other teachers) were uniformly perceived as only slightly effective in helping teachers handle problem children; and (c) of 14 alternative educational and psychological assistance delivery strategies, teachers most frequently preferred smaller classes, teacher aides, increased counseling staff, and resource classrooms.This study was funded as part of Grant No. OEG-0-71-2872 from the U.S. Office of Education. The opinions expressed in this paper are in no way intended to reflect those of the granting agency. The suggestions of Marlene Schneider, Eleanor Wilcox, Ruth Shepard, and Susan O'Leary were extremely helpful in the initial formulation of the questionnaire used in this study. The authors are further indebted to Kenneth Kaufman, Marvin R. Goldfried, Leonard Krasner, Lillian Stevens, W. E. Hedley, and R. Mullaney for allowing us to use their continuing education courses as the sources of our sample of teachers, and to the many teachers who completed the questionnaire.     

Systemische Familien- und Spieltherapie im Krankenhaus

Studies on children after pediatric liver transplantation have shown that patients are confronted with various psychosocial problems due to the illness and long hospitalization. They do not have suitable coping strategies available to handle this situation. A concept of systemic family therapy and play therapy for children in hospital was thus developed. The patients and their families are accompanied during hospitalization, are supported preventively and are helped in developing suitable strategies for coping with the psychosocial stress.     

Development of the infant's ability to retrieve food through a slit

The main purpose of the present study is to explore infants' ability to comprehend task manipulation, and whether they can feed themselves with a spoon when food has to be retrieved through a slit in a lid placed over a plate. To access the food, the infant has to align the bowl of the spoon with the slit. The orientation of the slit is manipulated, and certain orientations require more elaborate modifications of the feeding action than others. The infants are observed at monthly intervals, from 12 to 17 months of age. The presence of the lid affects the behaviour of the infants at all ages. Some behaviours become more immature. The infants grasp the spoon with more primitive grasp configurations, they grasp the spoon less consistently at the top of the handle, and they orient the spoon less consistently, with its bowl facing upwards. These differences decrease with age. The infants also make attempts to adjust to the constraints of the task, mainly by inclining the spoon more vertically, and rotating the hand in such a way as to align the spoon with the orientation of the slit. These adjustments improve with age. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning about tools in infancy

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the bowl did not fit through the hole in the box, but the handle did) and even though the experimenter demonstrated a bowl-grasp. In contrast, infants used a novel tool flexibly and grasped both sides equally often. In Experiment 2, infants received training using the novel tool for a particular function; 3 groups of infants were trained to use the tool differently. Later, infants' performance was facilitated on tasks that required infants to grasp the part of the tool they were trained to grasp. The results suggest that (a) infants' prior experiences with tools are important to understanding subsequent tool use, and (b) rather than learning about tool function (e.g., hammering), infants learn about which part of the tool is meant to be held, at least early in their exposure to a novel tool.     

Development of visual center of mass localization for grasp point selection

Adults assess precisely the center of mass (CM) of single-bodied objects and choose grasping points that span an axis through or close to the center of mass when lifting them. The present study examined how children and adults assess the CM when lifting two-bodied objects (barbells) and how this ability develops. Four- to five-year olds, 6- to 7-year olds, 9- to 11-year olds and adults were required to grasp and lift symmetrically and asymmetrically proportioned miniature barbells and their grasping points were recorded. While the 4- to 5-year olds grasped near the center of the barbell, accuracy of assessing the correct CM improved linearly with age. Although adults grasped close to the CM, their CM determination follows only an approximation of the physical law.     

Principles of part-whole selective perception by dynamic touch extend to the torso

The haptic subsystem of dynamic touch expresses a novel form of part-whole selective perception. When wielding a nonvisible rod grasped at some intermediate point along its length, an individual can attend to and report the length of a part of the rod (e.g., the segment forward of the hand) or the length of the whole rod. Both perceptions relate to the rod's mass moments about the point of grasp but in systematically different ways. Previous demonstrations of this part-whole selectivity have been in respect to rods grasped by hand or attached to a foot. The authors demonstrated the part-whole selectivity for nonvisible rods attached to the shoulder girdle and wielded primarily by movements of the trunk with benchmark performance provided by the same rods grasped and wielded by hand. Their results suggest that part-whole selectivity is a haptic capability general to the body.     

Constraints on the visual accuracy of drawings produced by young children

Errors made by young children when they are asked to draw a model were investigated in two studies. In the first study, the experimenter asked 5- and 8-year-old children to draw a cup that had a flower decal (transfer) attached to its outside surface, attached to its inside surface or positioned beside it. The 8-year-old children in all conditions produced visually accurate drawings. The 5-year-old children produced visually accurate drawings when the flower decal was positioned beside the cup and when the flower decal was attached to the inside surface of the cup but not when the flower decal was attached to the cup's outside surface. In the second study, 5- and 8-year-old children were asked to draw a cup that had either an intact or a broken handle. The handle area of the cup was either in view or not in view. The 5- and 8-year-old children performed comparably in this experiment. The children had difficulty producing accurate copies of the model only when the cup had a handle and the handle was not in view. Taken together, these studies indicate that 5-year-old children are more likely to produce visually accurate drawings than has previously been supposed. Difficulty in producing accurate drawings occurred when drawing rules and drawing conventions interfered with the task.     

Täuschungsstrategien von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (22) is part of the Statement Validity Assessment (SVA), a method used for assessing the credibility of witness’ statements. CBCA relies on two assumptions, one referring to the cognitive strain of inventing a complex false declaration, the other being related to self presentation as a competent, reliable and truthful person by avoiding potentially “damaging” contents. When evalutating statements, forensic experts take into account that cognitive capacity - and thus potential content quality of a false declaration - increases with age. On the other hand there is no empirical evidence for an improvement of deceptive self-presentation strategies so far. Recent studies on content-related deceptive strategies with children and adults support the assumption that children as well as adults do apply specific deception strategies. Due to methodological differences, however, a direct comparison between these studies to obtain results on possible age effects has not been possible. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children, adolescents and adults differ in the content-related deceptive strategies they apply. Children (n = 48), adolescents (n = 73) and adults (n = 50) were given an age appropriate standardized questionnaire about their content-related deception strategies. Results show age differences in the strategic value assigned to certain content characteristics.     

Noncanonical orientation without occlusion: Children's drawings of transparent objects

The use of a transparent model in a drawing task allows all the features of the model to remain visible whatever its orientation. N. H. Freeman (1980, Strategies of Representation in Young Children, New York/London, Academic Press) found that when drawing a transparent glass with its handle turned away, children made more canonical errors (drawing the handle at the side) than when drawing a similarly orientated opaque cup. According to Freeman being able to see the handle in a noncanonical orientation “triggers” a canonical representation of the object (N. H. Freeman 1980, p. 252). Two experiments are reported which investigated children's drawings of transparent objects. The drawings obtained from children between 4 and 7 years old produced two major findings. First, the tendency toward canonicality when drawing a glass with its handle turned away was significantly reduced when two glasses in differeing orientations were presented side by side. Second, the number of canonical errors was lower when the glass was filled with milk (thus hiding the handle). This latter finding confirms that of N. H. Freeman (1980). However, the first suggests that children use situationally appropriate information when drawing transparent objects in a way similar to that noted by A. M. Davis (1983, Contextual Sensitivity in Young Children's Drawings, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 35, 478–486) using opaque objects.     

The indirect impact of child-oriented advertisements : On mother-child interactions

The Federal Trade Commission (1978) has expressed concern about the direct and indirect effects that commercial food advertisements have on children and families. Based on these concerns, they suggested banning all advertising aimed at young children. The present experiment was designed within the context of concern about the influence of television food advertising on parent-child interactions. It was predicted that mothers whose children viewed a television program with embedded food advertisements would display more control strategies and more power assertion while grocery shopping than mothers of children who were not exposed to advertisements. The results corroborated this hypothesis and, in addition, revealed that children who viewed the food advertisements attempted to influence their mothers' consumerism more than children who did not view the food advertisements. These results were discussed in terms of the importance of considering how television-viewing indirectly influences the quality of parent-child interactions.     

Gender and Sex-Role Influences on Children''s Self-Esteem

This study examined direct and moderating influences of gender and sex-role orientations on children's general self-esteem. Moderating influences of these variables on the prediction of self-esteem were examined with respect to two sets of competence beliefs regarding school achievement: perceived capacities and perceived strategies for doing well in school. One hundred nineteen fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children were assessed using the Perceived Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1982), the Multidimensional Measure of Children's Perceptions of Control (Connell, 1985), and the Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Hall & Halberstadt, 1980). Correlational and hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that upper elementary schoolchildren's general self-esteem is (a) marginally related to biological gender, with boys showing a slight advantage; (b) significantly related to masculinity and androgyny; and (c) predicted more strongly by perceived capacities to do schoolwork in girls than in boys, and by perceived (lack of) strategies for academic success in nontraditionally sex-typed children than in traditionally sex-typed children. Of the two nontraditionally sex-typed groups, androgynous children were found to have more positive school competence beliefs than were undifferentiated children.     

Opposite haptic and visual induction effects observed with Titchener’s ⊥

Nineteen psychology undergraduates were requested to “grasp” the lines of a computer image of Titchener’s ⊥ with a thumb and index finger pincer grip immediately after the line to be grasped had been indicated and the whole figure extinguished. The hand remained visible. Lines were of three different lengths (6.5, 7, and 7.5 cm), and ⊥s were presented at eight different orientations (rotated in steps of 45°). Lines also had to be judged longer, shorter, or equal, relative to one another. Haptically, subjects responded correctly to the ⊥s’ undivided lines, but scaled their responses to the divided ones according to the undivided ones. Categorical judgments yielded comparable psychometric functions for both kinds of lines, with a significant shift of points of subjective equality from a difference in length between lines of 9.8% to 13.5% when the divided or the undivided line was target. Haptic sensitivity, therefore, appears to be constrained by context, whereas the classical “visual illusion,” associated with Titchener’s ⊥, may be regarded a mere decisional criterion shift.