Locomotor experience affects self and emotion

Dev Psychol. 2008 Sep;44(5):1225-31. doi: 10.1037/a0013224.

Abstract

Two studies investigated the role of locomotor experience on visual proprioception in 8-month-old infants. Visual proprioception refers to the sense of self-motion induced in a static person by patterns of optic flow. A moving room apparatus permitted displacement of an entire enclosure (except for the floor) or the side walls and ceiling. In Study 1, creeping infants and prelocomotor/walker infants showed significantly greater postural compensation and emotional responses to side wall movement than did same-age prelocomotor infants. Study 2 used true random assignment of prelocomotor infants to locomotor-training (via a powered-mobility device) and no-training conditions. Experimental infants showed powerful effects of locomotor training. These results imply that locomotor experience is playing a causal role in the ontogeny of visual proprioception.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Awareness*
  • Emotions*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant Behavior
  • Kinesthesis*
  • Locomotion*
  • Male
  • Orientation
  • Posture
  • Proprioception*
  • Psychology, Child*
  • Visual Perception*