Infants Display Anticipatory Gaze During a Motor Contingency Paradigm

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Examining visual behavior during a motor learning paradigm can enhance our understanding of how infants learn motor skills. The aim of this study was to determine if infants who learned a contingency visually anticipated the outcomes of their behavior. METHODS: 15 infants (6-9 months of age) participated in a contingency learning paradigm. When an infant produced a right leg movement, a robot provided reinforcement by clapping. Three types of visual gaze events were identified: predictive, reactive, and not looking. An exploratory analysis examined the trends in visual-motor behavior that can be used to inform future questions and practices in contingency learning studies. RESULTS: = 0.028). Specifically, all but one learners displayed a distribution of gaze timing identified as predictive (skewness: 0.56-2.42) with the median timing preceding robot activation by 0.31 s (range: -0.40-0.18 s). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that most learners displayed visual anticipation withing the first minutes of performing the paradigm. Further, the classical definition of learning a contingency paradigm in infants can be sharpened to further the design of contingency learning studies and advance the processes infants use to learn motor skills.