THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLS IN INFANTS

在请求支助期间，我有三大目标。 的 第一，继续研究发展的一般理论， 动态系统原理。 该理论试图描述， 希望能将发育中的有机体建模为多组分的 系统，其中系统的元件并联耦合， 并且由此产生的行为遵循以下一般原则： 非线性动力学 专业成长计划包括辅导 以及与从事动态和 运动控制和认知中的联结主义模型。 第二 goal是一个研究项目，致力于理解一个方面 of skill技能development发展in infancy婴儿期. 这项研究，在合作 和一位顶尖的生物力学家罗纳德·F·加州大学洛杉矶分校的泽尼克寻求 了解婴儿如何利用和优化 与四肢和身体各部分的运动有关， 被认为是获得技能的关键。 一个系统- 功能主义理论框架用于生成问题 关于这些所谓的节间的发展作用， 动力学 1. 力的力矩是如何分配的 新生儿的身体部位 2. 肢体动力学是如何变化的 #21518;影响，任务？ 3. 肢体动力学如何随年龄变化？ 4. 姿势对技能获得有什么影响？ 5. 什么 是普通婴儿肌肉活动的基本模式 行动？ 6. 运动扰动如何影响肢体 动力学？ 婴儿在纵向和几个横截面 研究将通过计算机记录他们的运动。 运动分析系统和肢体运动学和动力学测量 能源的协调、控制和分配， 测定 这些研究对以下方面具有重要意义： 理解技能发展：1。 他们描述说， 时间，力如何在婴儿时期在身体各部分之间分配 获得技能2. 它们显示了动力因素如何与其他因素相互作用， 神经、结构和背景变量来决定技能 性能 3. 它们提供了理解的原则基础 关于个人身体和外部世界的信息 可以被神经系统传导产生动作， 最终是发展变化。 我的最终目标是写 理论和实证工作的专著。

I have three broad goals for the period of requested support. The first is to continue work on a general theory of development based on dynamic systems principles. The theory seeks to describe, and hopefully, to model, developing organisms as multicomponent systems, where the elements of the system are coupled in parallel, and where the resulting behavior obeys the general principles of nonlinear dynamics. Plans for professional growth include tutorial and collaboration with scientists working on dynamic and connectionist models in motor control and cognition. The second goal is a program of research devoted to understanding an aspect of skill development in infancy. This research, in collaboration with a leading biomechanist, Dr. Ronald F. Zernicke, of UCLA, seeks to understand how infants harness and optimize the forces associated with moving their limbs and body segments, a process believed to be essential in acquiring skill. A systems- functionalist theoretical framework is used to generate questions about the development role of these so-called intersegmental dynamics. 1. How are the moments of force partitioned among the body segments in newborn infants? 2. How do limb dynamics change with and affect, task? 3. How do limb dynamics change with age? 4. What is the effect of posture on skill acquisition? 5. What are the underlying patterns of muscle activities in common infant actions? 6. How do perturbations of movement affect limb dynamics? Infants in a longitudinal and several cross-sectional studies will have their movements recorded by a computerized motion-analysis system, and kinematic and kinetic measures of limb coordination, control, and distribution of energy will be determined. These studies have important implications for understanding skill development: 1. They describe, for the first time, how forces are apportioned among body segments as infants gain skill 2. They show how dynamical factors interact with other neural, structural, and contextual variables to determine skill performance. 3. They provide a principled basis for understanding how information about the individual's body and the external world can be transduced by the nervous system to produce action, and ultimately, developmental change. My final goal is to write the theoretical and empirical work in a monograph.