The impact of motor experience on object exploration, motor competence, and action understanding

动作是由感官系统(我们看到的)和运动系统(我们如何移动)之间令人印象深刻的相互作用来准备和执行的。此外，我们还结合了我们所知道的有关所需对象及其属性的信息。拟议的研究项目将通过调查运动经验对婴儿获得物理知识和物体探索、运动能力和动作理解的影响来解决这一复杂的相互作用。物理知识的获得：在物理世界中成功的表演需要关于物体属性和它们所能提供的动作种类的复杂知识。婴儿通过优化的知觉-动作程序学习相关的物体属性，并将这些信息整合到他们的物体定向动作中(Gibson&Pick，2000)。例如，物体的材料提供了线索，允许我们推断其重量并前瞻性地指导我们的行动(Smith等人，1985)。最近的研究还表明，9个月大的婴儿会将通过探索获得的知识应用于随后的触觉动作(J3)。稍大一点的婴儿将物体的重量与其材料联系起来，并将这一知识传授给新物体(J7、J6、J4)。拟议的研究将调查手工经验对婴儿看起来的行为的影响，以及与体重相关的感知行为对随后的到达偏好和探索行为的影响，为知觉系统和运动系统的双向联系提供进一步的证据。运动能力：最近的研究表明，自我运动的开始与一些认知技能相吻合。例如，爬行能力与9个月大婴儿在与目标相关的模仿任务中更灵活的记忆提取有关(Herbert等人，2007年)，行走能力似乎与婴儿的语言发展有关(Walle&Campos，2013)。爬行和行走的开始也与社会发展的重大进步相一致(Clearfield，2011)，增强了对这种运动的识别和感知(BC2；Sanefuji，Ohgami和Hashiya，2008)，并有助于发现违反身体约束的行为(Hauf，MacDonald和Giese，在Prep中)。这项拟议的研究将通过跟踪爬行前的婴儿，直到他们成为有经验的步行者，进一步加深我们对运动经验对运动知觉影响的理解。在此期间，将记录运动发育，并进行与身体运动相关的不同知觉任务和目标定向动作。此外，还将研究视觉和运动增强课程对婴儿感知和产生动作的影响。动作理解：在生命的第一年，动作理解的发展是认知发展中的一个重要问题。近年来，动作知觉与动作产生(BC4)的双向交互作用成为研究的热点。这些发现得到了对镜像-神经元系统的研究的支持(Falck-Ytter，Gredebäck，&von Hofsten，2006)--表明即使在婴儿期，动作知觉和生产之间也有密切的联系。拟议的研究计划将系统地调查运动和知觉系统对动作理解的重要性，以及一个系统中可能的发展如何影响另一个系统的能力。例如，视觉刺激会将婴儿的注意力引导到动作场景的特殊特征上，从而促进动作理解。同样，激励性经验将增强婴儿执行特定目标导向行动所需的运动能力，这反过来又有助于理解其他人所感知的行动。

Actions are prepared and executed by an impressive interplay between the sensory system (what we see) and the motor system (how we move). Additionally, we incorporate what we know about the desired object and its properties. The proposed research project will address this complex interplay by investigating the impact of motor experience on infants' acquisition of physical knowledge and object exploration, motor competence, and action understanding. Acquisition of physical knowledge: Successful acting in the physical world requires sophisticated knowledge about object properties and the kind of actions that they afford. Infants learn about relevant object properties through optimised perception-action routines, and they also integrate that information into their object-directed actions (Gibson & Pick, 2000). For example, an object's material provides cues that allow us to infer its weight and to guide our actions prospectively (Smith et al., 1985). Recent research also demonstrated that infants as young as 9 months of age apply knowledge acquired through exploration to subsequent reaching actions (J3). Slightly older infants relate the weight of an object to its material and transfer this knowledge to new objects (J7, J6, J4). The proposed studies will investigate the influence of manual experience on infants' looking behaviour, as well as the influence of perceived weight-related behaviour on subsequent reaching preference and explorative behaviour providing further evidence for the bidirectional connection of perceptual and motor systems. Motor competence: Recent studies indicate that the onset of self-locomotion coincides with a number of cognitive skills. For example, the ability to crawl is associated with more flexible memory retrieval in goal-related imitation tasks by 9 months of age (Herbert et al., 2007), and the ability to walk seems to be related to infants' language development (Walle & Campos, 2013). The onset of crawling and walking also corresponds with major advances in social development (Clearfield, 2011), enhances the recognition and perception of such movements (BC2; Sanefuji, Ohgami, & Hashiya, 2008), and facilitates the detection of body-constraint violations (Hauf, MacDonald, & Giese, in prep). The proposed research will further deepen our understanding of the impact of motor experience on movement perception by following pre-crawling infants until they are experienced walkers. During this time, motor development will be recorded, and different perception tasks related to body movements and goal-directed actions will be conducted. Furthermore, the influence of visual and motor enhancement sessions on infants' perception and production of movements will be examined. Action understanding: The development of action understanding during the first years of life is an important issue in cognitive development. In recent years, research has focused on the bi-directional interplay of action perception and action production (BC4). These findings - supported by research on the mirror-neuron system (Falck-Ytter, Gredebäck, & von Hofsten, 2006) - suggest that, even in infancy, there is a close linkage between action perception and production. The proposed research program will systematically investigate how important motor and perceptual systems are for action understanding, and how possible development in one system impacts the capacities of the other. For example, visual stimuli will direct infants' attention to special features of action scenes, facilitating action understanding. Likewise, agentive experience will enhance infants' motor capacities required to perform a specific goal-directed action, which, in turn, will facilitate understanding of perceived actions performed by others.