Sustained visual attention is more than seeing

Sustained visual attention is a well-studied cognitive capacity that is relevant to many developmental outcomes. The development of visual attention is often construed as an increased capacity to exert top-down internal control. We demonstrate that sustained visual attention, measured in terms of momentary eye gaze, emerges from and is tightly tied to sensory-motor coordination. Specifically, we examined whether and how changes in manual behavior alter toddlers’ eye gaze during toy play. We manipulated manual behavior by giving one group of children heavy toys that were hard to pick up and giving another group of children perceptually identical toys that were lighter and easy to pick up and hold. We found a tight temporal coupling of visual attention with the duration of manual activities on the objects, a relation that cannot be explained by interest alone. Toddlers in the heavy-object condition looked at objects as much as toddlers in the light-object condition but did so through many brief glances, whereas looks to the same objects were longer and sustained in the light-object condition. We explain the results based on the mechanism of hand–eye coordination and discuss its implications for the development of visual attention

Neural oscillatory insight into the endogenous cognitive processes and inter-personal contingencies that drive infant attention and support joint action during early infant-caregiver interaction

Infants’ ability to engage in joint attention with others towards the end of the first year is fundamental to language acquisition and shared cognition. Despite this, our understanding of the endogenous cognitive mechanisms that drive infant attention during shared caregiver-infant interaction, and support dynamic inter-personal co-ordination is, at the moment, limited. Traditional approaches to joint attention development centred on understanding how caregivers didactically structure infant learning through ostensive communication. More recent perspectives, however, drawing on dynamic systems views of early cognition, have emphasised the role of fast-acting, multi-level, sensorimotor processes that operate across the dyad to support joint action and social learning. Newly developed micro-analysis approaches to studying early interaction have shown that infants use sensory cues to rapidly coordinate their attention with an adult partner, and statistical regularities in these cues are thought to extend infant attention and support word learning. To fully understand the contribution of joint interactions to early cognitive development however, we need to examine the mechanisms, endogenous to the infant, that support infant engagement and interpersonal contingency on a moment-by-moment basis. One way we can examine this is through the application of neurocognitive methods, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, to studying the dynamics of naturalistic, free-flowing interactions. Analysing time-locked and continuous associations between infants’ neural activity, infant attention, and inter-dyadic behavioural coordination, this thesis assesses the sub-second cognitive processes that influence how infants allocate their attention during triadic caregiver-infant play. First, neural evidence is presented to show that, whilst infants do not play a proactive role in creating episodes of mutual attention, they are sensitive to when their gaze is followed by an adult partner. Second, extended infant attention episodes are shown to be influenced, jointly, by attentional processes endogenous to the infant and reactive modulations in caregiver behaviour in response to changes in infant attention and cognitive engagement. Finally, the applicability of continuous methods to assessing speech-brain tracking by infants to their caregivers’ speech signal during naturalistic interactions is examined, and the role of behaviour-brain entrainment in creating and maintaining episodes of joint attention considered. Discussion focusses on the contribution of the findings to our understanding of active learning processes that operate across the dyad during early interaction, and that support the development of shared cognition. Models of early language learning in the context of the findings are considered, and directions for future work put forward

Social dynamics of early human development

Journal ArticleI present the outlines of theory of social dynamics that combines a dynamic systems perspective and a Gibsonian ecological perspective to an understanding of the development of action (Fogel, in press). Different physical and social environments afford different opportunities for action. A rattle affords noise making, for example. To activate this affordance, the individual has to identify the specific microscopic movements necessary to evoke sound from the rattle: the arm and wrist movements related to shaking. How does a baby come to acquire this action? Partly by exploratory play, but at first this play is embedded in social interaction. A social dynamic perspective suggests that during adult-infant interaction, adults identify action affordances that the infant is potentially capable of doing. Then, development occurs by two processes. In the first, the adult engages a child in a joint construction of the action afforded by the situation, helping the child perform the action via a co-regulation of the relevant movement parameters (e. g., demonstrating rattle shaking then placing the object in the infant's hand, or moving the infant's hand. In the second process, the adult transmits or receives information that highlights the relevant parameters of movement related to action affordances

Robots that Say ‘No’. Affective Symbol Grounding and the Case of Intent Interpretations

© 2017 IEEE. This article has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Modern theories on early child language acquisition tend to focus on referential words, mostly nouns, labeling concrete objects, or physical properties. In this experimental proof-of-concept study, we show how nonreferential negation words, typically belonging to a child's first ten words, may be acquired. A child-like humanoid robot is deployed in speech-wise unconstrained interaction with naïve human participants. In agreement with psycholinguistic observations, we corroborate the hypothesis that affect plays a pivotal role in the socially distributed acquisition process where the adept conversation partner provides linguistic interpretations of the affective displays of the less adept speaker. Negation words are prosodically salient within intent interpretations that are triggered by the learner's display of affect. From there they can be picked up and used by the budding language learner which may involve the grounding of these words in the very affective states that triggered them in the first place. The pragmatic analysis of the robot's linguistic performance indicates that the correct timing of negative utterances is essential for the listener to infer the meaning of otherwise ambiguous negative utterances. In order to assess the robot's performance thoroughly comparative data from psycholinguistic studies of parent-child dyads is needed highlighting the need for further interdisciplinary work.Peer reviewe

The ontogenesis of narrative : from moving to meaning

Narrative, the creation of imaginative projects and experiences displayed in expressions of movement and voice, is how human cooperative understanding grows. Human understanding places the character and qualities of objects and events of interest within stories that portray intentions, feelings, and ambitions, and how one cares about them. Understanding the development of narrative is therefore essential for understanding the development of human intelligence, but its early origins are obscure. We identify the origins of narrative in the innate sensorimotor intelligence of a hypermobile human body and trace the ontogenesis of narrative form from its earliest expression in movement. Intelligent planning, with self-awareness, is evident in the gestures and motor expressions of the mid-gestation foetus. After birth, single intentions become serially organised into projects with increasingly ambitious distal goals and social meaning. The infant imitates others’ actions in shared tasks, learns conventional cultural practices, and adapts his own inventions, then names topics of interest. Through every stage, in simple intentions of foetal movement, in social imitations of the neonate, in early proto-conversations and collaborative play of infants and talk of children and adults, the narrative form of creative agency with it four-part structure of ‘introduction’, ‘development’, ‘climax’ and ‘resolution’ is present. We conclude that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative and sociable Self. This basic structure is evident before birth and invariant in form throughout life. Serial organisation of single, non-verbal actions into complex projects of expressive and explorative sense-making become conventional meanings and explanations with propositional narrative power. Understanding the root of narrative in embodied meaning-making in this way is important for practical work in therapy and education, and for advancing philosophy and neuroscience

Sensorimotor skills in autism spectrum disorder : a meta-analysis

Les habiletés sensori-motrices sont souvent rapportées comme déficitaires chez les personnes atteintes d’un trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), mais peu de consensus règne sur la façon dont ces habiletés varient en fonction du développement. L'objectif de ce mémoire est de mener une méta-analyse visant à montrer une différence sur le plan des habiletés motrices fines et globales chez les TSA en comparaison avec un groupe neurotypique. Au total, 139 études ont été incluses. Les résultats montrent la présence de déficits importants des habiletés sensori-motrices chez une population TSA (k=127, g=1,25, SE=0,08; p<0,001), à la fois pour la motricité fine (k=81, g=1.11, SE = 0.09; p < 0.001) et globale (k=65, g=1.27, SE= 0.10; p< 0.001). Le but ultime est d’établir les bases théoriques pour de futures interventions cliniques, telles qu’avec la musique et la danse, chez une population autiste.Sensorimotor skills are often reported as atypical in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but little is known about how these skills vary with development. The main objective of this thesis was to conduct a comprehensive quantitative meta-analysis of sensorimotor skills in ASD. The specific aim was to assess the consistency of atypical gross and fine sensorimotor behaviours in ASD. A total of 139 studies were included. Results strongly support the presence of deficits in overall sensorimotor abilities in ASD (k=127, g=1.25, SE=0.08, p <0.001), extended to both fine (k=81 , g=1.11, SE = 0.09, p <0.001) and gross sensorimotor skills (k=65, g=1.27, SE=0.10, p <0.001). The ultimate mission of this research is to support a theoretical groundwork for future sensorimotor-based interventions (e.g., music and dance) in ASD

CHARACTERIZING SENSORY PROCESSING IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Rationale: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with onset prior to the age of three years characterized by qualitative impairments in social interaction and communication skill, along with a restricted repetitive and stereotyped pattern of behavior, interests, and activities. In addition to these core diagnostic features, aberrant sensory responding has also been widely reported in the literature describing children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aberrant sensory processing has, however, been infrequently studied compared to communication and cognition in autism and existing studies have had multiple methodological deficiencies, especially with sampling procedures. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to describe patterns of sensory processing found in children with an ASD to test the relationship(s) of these patterns to diagnostic and developmental variables. Method. Retrospective data collection was used to collect developmental and sensory processing variables of 400 children with an ASD. Sensory processing abilities were measured by the SSP. Results. The majority of the sample (80.5%) had a diagnosis of autism. The average age of the sample was 49.58 months. The adaptive, social, language, and motor developmental variables were consistent with diagnostic patterns in that the children with Asperger Disorder demonstrated higher developmental levels than the children with autism and PDD-NOS. Eighty-nine percent of the sample demonstrated some degree of sensory processing dysfunction on the SSP Total Score with the greatest difficulties reported on the Underresponsive/Seeks Sensation, Auditory Filtering, and Tactile Sensitivity sections. Exploratory factor analysis identified 6 parsimonious factors: Low Energy/Weak, Tactile and Movement Sensitivity, Taste/Smell Sensitivity, Auditory and Visual Sensitivity, Sensory Seeking/Distractibility, and Hypo-responsivity. These factor variables contributed to explaining the differences in five of six developmental variables of the sample that are associated with the diagnosis of autism. Receptive language, adaptive and expressive language performance were significantly correlated with sensory processing factor scores. Conclusions. Together, the sensory processing findings noted in this study describe a pattern of dysfunctional sensory modulation. These findings have significant implications for intervention programs involving individuals with an ASD, given the potential impact of these findings on a childs ability to maintain active engagement