Flexibility of Learning in Infant Skill Acquisition

本研究的总体目标是促进对运动技能灵活性的理解 习得：婴儿、儿童和成人如何学习选择适当的动作，并根据需要进行修改， 根据目前的行动限制。灵活性对于自适应电机至关重要 因为对动作的约束（例如，环境、机构/技能和错误惩罚） 不断变化。实证研究表明，日常的平衡和运动经验 为婴儿提供必要的资金，以灵活地调整运动决策，以适应他们身体，技能和 环境然而，学习是特定于姿势发展中的每个感知-动作系统的 （坐、爬、走）。 具体目标#1是测试婴儿运动决策的灵活性和特异性。拟议 实验使用年龄匹配的设计来测试有经验的感知-动作系统中的灵活性 在改变身体尺寸/技能和错误惩罚的条件下， 有经验的vs.新获得的感知-行动系统。具体目标#2是描述 灵活性.这项研究采用微观遗传学设计来测试婴儿大脑中与经验相关的变化， 能力，以科普新的限制行动和横截面设计，以测试与年龄有关的变化， 从婴儿到老年的灵活性。具体目标#3是评估“专业化”感知-行动的灵活性 由于特定的机会，只有一小部分儿童在婴儿期后获得系统技能， 要求。拟议的研究使用“猴条“范式来测试儿童在一定条件下的运动决策， 改变身体的约束和对错误的惩罚。在所有的实验中，心理物理学方法将是 用于量化运动决策与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下降或诱捕，研究结果将提供 这两个意外伤害的主要原因。从猴架上摔下来是导致 童年中期在操场上受伤此外，还提出了方法、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跟踪提供基础。 改善治疗的灵活性。

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.