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. 2008 Sep;44(5):1225-31.
doi: 10.1037/a0013224.

Locomotor experience affects self and emotion

Ichiro Uchiyama  1 , David I Anderson, Joseph J Campos, David Witherington, Carl B Frankel, Laure Lejeune, Marianne Barbu-Roth
Affiliations

Locomotor experience affects self and emotion

Ichiro Uchiyama et al. Dev Psychol. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

Two studies investigated the role of locomotor experience on visual proprioception in 8-month-old infants. Visual proprioception refers to the sense of self-motion induced in a static person by patterns of optic flow. A moving room apparatus permitted displacement of an entire enclosure (except for the floor) or the side walls and ceiling. In Study 1, creeping infants and prelocomotor/walker infants showed significantly greater postural compensation and emotional responses to side wall movement than did same-age prelocomotor infants. Study 2 used true random assignment of prelocomotor infants to locomotor-training (via a powered-mobility device) and no-training conditions. Experimental infants showed powerful effects of locomotor training. These results imply that locomotor experience is playing a causal role in the ontogeny of visual proprioception.

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References

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