Early motor development and mother-infant interaction in humans and great apes

以往的研究表明，姿势控制、运动活动以及感觉和知觉活动之间的发展相互联系是为了产生包括语言在内的更高的认知功能。对社会互动中表现出的各种行动的发展变化进行定性和定量分析的比较方法，对于澄清心理理解的系统发生和个体发生起源是必要的。在这项研究项目中，我们对黑猩猩和人类这两个物种的婴儿及其母亲的行为进行了多次观察，以描述姿势、操作和面对面互动之间的发育相互联系，并通过一些指征来评估运动发育，其中包括一般动作和姿势反应。研究发现：1)姿势反应的共同发展阶段及其过渡期的某些移位；2)一般动作的共同出现及其复杂性的具体差异；3)早期行为的共同出现，包括吮吸、哭泣和微笑，以及它们之间发展相互联系的具体差异。根据研究项目中获得的比较数据，提出了研究人类母婴交流的系统发育和个体发育起源的理论框架。

Previous studies suggest that developmental interconnection among postural control, motor activity, and sensory and perceptual activities evolved to generate higher functions of cognition, which include language. Comparative approach to qualitative and quantitative analyses of developmental variety of actions, which are exhibited in social interactions, would be necessary to clarify the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of understandings of minds. In this study project, we conducted several observations of behaviors in infants and their mothers in two species, chimpanzees and humans, to describe developmental interconnection among postural, manipulatory, and face-to-face interactions, evaluating motor development with some indications, which include general movements and postural reactions. The findings were as follows; 1)identification of common developmental stages of postural reactions and some displacement of their transition periods, 2)common emergence of general movements and specific differences in their complexity, 3)common emergence of early behaviors, which include sucking, crying, and smiling and specific differences in the developmental interconnection among them. Theoretical frame work was presented for studying the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of mother-infant communications in humans based on the comparative data obtained in the study project.