Using social information to guide action: infants' locomotion over slippery slopes

Abstract

In uncertain situations such as descending challenging slopes, social signals from caregivers can provide infants with important information for guiding action. Previous work showed that 18-month-old walking infants use social information selectively, only when risk of falling is uncertain. Experiment 1 was designed to alter infants' region of uncertainty for walking down slopes. Slippery Teflon-soled shoes drastically impaired 18-month-olds' ability to walk down slopes compared with walking barefoot or in standard crepe-soled shoes, shifting the region of uncertainty to a shallower range of slopes. In Experiment 2, infants wore Teflon-soled shoes while walking down slopes as their mothers encouraged and discouraged them from walking. Infants relied on social information on shallow slopes, even at 0°, where the probability of walking successfully was uncertain in the Teflon-soled shoes. Findings indicate that infants' use of social information is dynamically attuned to situational factors and the state of their current abilities.

Figure 1

Proportion of trials that infants attempted to walk down slopes while barefoot, (A) 18-month-old experienced walkers; (B) 12-month-old novice walkers.

Figure 2

Walkway with an adjustable slope. An experimenter (shown) followed alongside infants to ensure their safety. Mothers and another experimenter (not pictured) stood at the end of the landing platform coaxing infants to walk.

Figure 3

Distribution of walking thresholds. Each symbol represents an individual infant’s walking threshold; horizontal lines on each plot represent mean values.

Figure 4

Location of experimenter and mother during test trials while infants walked in Teflon-soled shoes. Mothers sat on a raised platform adjacent to the landing platform. Experimenter followed alongside infants to ensure their safety.

Figure 5

Walking attempts and exploratory behaviors. (A) Proportion of trials that infants attempted to walk down slopes; (B) number of infants that avoided descent and remained on the starting platform for the duration of the trial; (C) latency to begin descent; (D) proportion of trials that infants touched the sloping section of the walkway.

Figure 6

Infants’ social expressions. (A) Proportion of trials that infants displayed positive-neutral facial expressions; (B) negative facial expressions, (C) emitted positive-neutral vocalizations; and (D) negative vocalizations.