Flexibility of Learning in Infant Skill Acquisition

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究的总体目标是促进对运动技能获得中的灵活性的理解--婴儿、儿童和成年人如何学习选择适当的动作并根据当前行动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，因为对动作的约束(例如，环境、身体/技能以及对错误的惩罚)不断变化。经验研究表明，平衡和运动的日常经验为婴儿提供了必要的资源，使其能够灵活地适应身体、技能和环境的新变化。然而，学习是特定于姿势发展(坐、爬和走)中的每个知觉-动作系统的。具体目标1是测试婴儿运动决策的灵活性和特异性。拟议的实验使用年龄匹配设计来测试经验知觉-行动系统在身体尺寸/技能改变和错误惩罚的条件下的灵活性，并测试经验知觉-行动系统与新获得的知觉-行动系统之间的特异性。具体目标2是描述灵活性的时间进程。拟议的研究使用微基因设计来测试婴儿应对新的行动限制的能力与经验相关的变化，并使用横断面设计来测试从婴儿期到老年的与年龄相关的灵活性变化。具体目标#3是评估“专门的”感知-行动系统的灵活性--只有一部分儿童在婴儿期后因特定的机会和需求而获得的技能。拟议中的研究使用“猴子棒”范式来测试儿童在改变身体约束和错误惩罚的条件下的运动决定。在所有实验中，将使用心理物理学方法来量化运动决策和实际行动可能性之间的对应关系。由于拟议研究中对错误的惩罚是下降或诱骗，研究结果将提供对这两个导致意外伤害的主要原因的洞察。从单杠上坠落是儿童中期游乐场受伤的主要原因。此外，建议的方法、概念框架和发现可以为评估运动障碍儿童的灵活性和跟踪治疗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.