Tactile stimulation and pre-term infant performance on an instrumental conditioning task

Abstract

Pre-term infants were given a systematic programme of supplemental tactile stimulation and then compared on an instrumental conditioning paradigm with non-stimulated matched controls (mean gestational age at testing was 36.5 weeks). While the groups demonstrated equivalent baseline sucking pressure levels, the stimulated infants showed significantly higher sucking pressures over the whole experiment, which may indicate greater sucking maturity. The stimulated infants also showed some evidence of improved learning ability in terms of a higher mean percentage increase in sucking pressure across learning trials, although this was marginally non-significant.