Determinants of executive function development: A motor training study

Development during infancy lays the foundation for future learning and growth. However, few studies have examined whether there are connections between foundational motor skills acquired during Infancy and subsequent learning. Previously, our lab has reported that the onset of sitting during infancy predicts language learning during the second year of life (Libertus & Violi, 2016). Language development during Infancy is a school readiness skill that may impact children’s later performance in school. Indeed, one longitudinal finding suggests that manual exploration in infancy predicts academic achievement at 14 years of age (Bornstein, Hahn, & Suwalsky, 2013). However, the mechanism underlying distal associations between infant motor skills and academic achievement remain unknown. The current study aims to examine whether the development of grasping in early Infancy impacts subsequent Executive Function (EF) and problem-solving skills as potential intermediaries between motor and cognitive development. EF skills are a reliable predictor of school readiness skills (Greenfader, 2019; Willoughby, Piper, Oyanga, & Merseth King, 2019). Based on previous research, we hypothesize that training motor skills in Infancy will facilitate the emergence of early EF skills over a 12-month period

Size matters: How age and reaching experiences shape infants’ preferences for different sized objects

Looking and reaching preferences for different-sized objects were examined in 4–5- and 5–6-month-old infants. Infants were presented with pairs of different sized cylinders and preferences were analyzed by age and reaching status. Outcome variables included looking and touching time for each object, first look, and first touch. Significant three-way interactions with age and reaching status were found for both infants’ looking and touching duration. Four–5- and 5–6-month-olds with less reaching experience spent more time visually and manually exploring larger objects. In contrast, 5–6-month-olds with more reaching experience spent more time looking at and touching smaller objects, despite a first look and first touch preference for the largest object. Initially, looking and reaching preferences seem to be driven by mechanisms responding to general visual salience independent of an object’s potential for manual action. Once reaching skills emerge, infants begin to use visual information to selectively choose smaller, more graspable objects as exploration targets

Object-Directed Action Experiences and their Effect on Cognitive and Social Development

<p>Reaching is an important and early emerging motor skill that allows infants to interact with the physical and social world (e.g., when sharing objects). Despite the importance of motor experiences in early infancy, few studies have considered the influence of reaching behavior on cognitive, social, and motor development. In this dissertation, reaching behavior was selectively manipulated in 73 non-reaching three-month-old infants using four different training interventions. Infants' reaching and social cognition skills were assessed and compared, and the long-term effects of one particular training intervention were explored.</p> <p>Of the four training interventions used here, one procedure--referred to as active training--facilitated domain-specific development (reaching and grasping behavior) and increased infants' preferential orienting towards faces in a visual-preference task (face preference). None of the remaining three training interventions facilitated motor development and only one increased face-preference behavior. However, a relation between face-preference behavior and motor experience was present in all trained infants as well as in three- to 11-month-old untrained infants. In untrained infants, face-preference behavior was the earliest social-cognition skill to emerge and was related to later emerging skills such as gaze following. Therefore, a preference for faces may be an important basic social-cognition skill that influences future social development.</p> <p>Additionally, the long-term effects of the active-training procedure were assessed in 14 infants who were tested one year after they had participated in the active-training intervention. Even after one year, converging evidence showed advanced manual exploration and object-engagement skills in trained compared to untrained infants. </p> <p>The studies described in this dissertation attempt to systematically investigate the role of early reaching experiences on subsequent development of motor and social cognition behaviors. The present findings demonstrate the importance of self-produced motor experiences on the development of social cognition and have implications for our understanding of typical development and the etiology of developmental disorders in social cognition.</p>Dissertatio

Influences of Adult Gender and Parenthood on Adult-Child Interaction Style

Previous studies report differences between mothers and fathers during parent&ndash;child interactions. However, the origins of these differences remain unknown. We address this gap by examining the impact of adult gender and gender perceptions on adult-child interactions. Unlike previous studies, we observed both parent and non-parent adults during one-on-one interactions with a child. Further, for non-parent adults the child&rsquo;s identity was held constant while the child&rsquo;s assumed gender was actively manipulated using clothing cues. Results reveal systematic differences between parents and non-parents, but also between male and female adults in language quantity, quality, and engagement strategies during adult-child interactions. Adults&rsquo; perceptions of gender roles partially explain these findings. In contrast, the child&rsquo;s gender did not impact adult-child interactions. Together, our results support the notion that male and female adults offer unique contributions to a child&rsquo;s development

Infants\u27 observation of tool-use events over the first year of life.

How infants observe a goal-directed instrumental action provides a unique window into their understanding of others’ behavior. In this study we investigated eye-gaze patterns while infants observed events in which an actor used a tool on an object. Comparisons between 4-, 7-, 10-, and 12-month old infants and adults reveal changes in infants’ looking patterns with age: Following an initial face bias, infants’ scan path eventually shows a dynamic integration of both the actor’s face and the objects upon which they act. This shift may mark a transition in infants’ understanding of the critical components of tool-use events and their understanding of others’ behavior

Development of Attention to Faces during the First 3 Years: Influences of Stimulus Type

The development of attention toward faces was explored during the first 3 years of life in 54 children aged between 3 and 36 months. In contrast to previous research, attention to faces was assessed using both static images and a dynamic video sequence in the same participants. Separate analyses at each age and exploratory longitudinal analyses indicate a preference for faces during the first year, followed by a decline during the second year. These results suggest that attention to faces does not follow a linear increasing pattern over development, and that social attention patterns are influenced by stimulus characteristics

A Pre-registered Sticky Mittens Study: Active Training does not Increase Reaching and Grasping in a Swedish Context

Several studies have previously investigated the effects of sticky mittens training on reaching and grasping development. However, recent critique casted doubts on the robustness of the motor effect of this training. The current study presents a pre-registered report that aimed to generalize these effects to Swedish infants. Three-month-old infants N = 96, 51 females, mostly White middle class in Uppsala, received daily, parent-led sticky mittens or observational training for 2 weeks or no training in 2019. Reaching and grasping abilities were assessed before and after training, using motion tracking and a 4-step reaching task. Sticky mittens training did not facilitate successful reaching. These results indicate that beneficial motor effects of sticky mittens training did not generalize to this sample