Flexibility of Learning in Infant Skill Acquisition

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目标是促进对运动技能习得中的灵活性的理解-婴儿，儿童和成人如何学习选择适当的动作并根据当前动作的限制进行必要的修改。灵活性对于自适应运动决策是必不可少的，因为对动作的限制（例如，环境、身体/技能和对错误的惩罚）是不断变化的。实证研究表明，平衡和运动的日常经验为婴儿提供了灵活调整运动决策的必要条件，以适应他们身体、技能和环境的新变化。然而，学习是特定于姿势发展（坐、爬、走）中的每个感知-行动系统的。具体目标1是测试婴儿运动决定的灵活性和特异性。所提出的实验采用年龄匹配设计来测试在改变身体尺寸/技能和错误惩罚条件下经验丰富的感知-行动系统的灵活性，并测试经验丰富的与新获得的感知-行动系统之间的特异性。具体目标2是描述灵活性的时间过程。拟议的研究采用微遗传学设计来测试婴儿应对新行动限制的能力的经验相关变化，并采用横断面设计来测试从婴儿到老年灵活性的年龄相关变化。具体目标#3是评估“专门的”感知-行动系统的灵活性——只有一小部分儿童在婴儿期之后由于特定的机会和需求而获得的技能。拟议的研究使用“猴杠”范式来测试儿童在改变身体约束和错误惩罚条件下的运动决策。在所有的实验中，一种心理物理方法将被用来量化运动决定和实际行动可能性之间的对应关系。由于在拟议的研究中对错误的惩罚是摔倒或诱捕，研究结果将深入了解意外伤害的这两个主要原因。从单杠上摔下来是儿童中期游乐场伤害的主要原因。此外，所提出的方法、概念框架和研究结果可以为评估运动障碍儿童的灵活性和追踪治疗后灵活性的改善提供基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this research is to advance the understanding of flexibility in motor skill acquisition - how infants, children, and adults learn to select appropriate movements and modify them as necessary in accordance with the current constraints on action. Flexibility is imperative for adaptive motor decisions because the constraints on action (e.g., environment, bodies/skills, and penalties for error) are continually changing. Empirical work indicates that everyday experience with balance and locomotion provides infants the wherewithal to flexibly adapt motor decisions to novel changes in their bodies, skills, and environment. Learning, however, is specific to each perception-action system in postural development (sitting, crawling, and walking). Specific Aim #1 is to test the flexibility and specificity of infants' motor decisions. The proposed experiments use an age-matched design to test flexibility within experienced perception-action systems under conditions of altered body dimensions/skills and penalties for error and to test specificity between experienced vs. newly acquired perception-action systems. Specific Aim #2 is to describe the time course of flexibility. The proposed studies use a microgenetic design to test experience-related changes in infants' ability to cope with novel constraints on action and a cross-sectional design to test age-related changes in flexibility from infancy to old age. Specific Aim #3 is to assess flexibility in "specialized" perception-action systems - skills acquired after infancy by only a subset of children due to specific opportunities and demands. Proposed studies use a "monkey bar" paradigm to test children's motor decisions under conditions of altered body constraints and penalties for error. Across all experiments, a psychophysical method will be used to quantify the correspondence between motor decisions and actual possibilities for action. As the penalties for errors in the proposed studies are falling or entrapment, findings will provide insight into these two leading causes of accidental injury. Falling from monkey bars is the leading cause of playground injury in middle childhood. In addition, the proposed methods, conceptual framework, and findings can provide the basis for assessing flexibility in children with motor impairments and for tracking improvements in flexibility with therapy.