Intermodal Calibration of the Body in Early Infancy

Abstract

Three experiments are reported addressing the issue of what kind of visual-proprio- ceptive information is picked up by young infants when engaging in the visual exploration of self-produced movements of their legs projected onto a video display. Results of the first experiment indicate that 3- to 5-month old infants show discrimi- nation between a normal view of their own legs and a view that reverses the left-right location of both legs on the screen. Results of the second experiment show that there is no such discrimination when the overall featural configuration of the legs is occluded. In relation to Experiment 1, these results suggest that infants are sensitive to the invariant featural characteristics of the legs, in particular, how they relate to the rest of the body. Finally, results of the third experiment replicate infants' pattern of visual preference toward a view that reverses the seen and felt overall movement directionality, using a successive instead of a simultaneous visual presentation para- digm. These results provide further evidence of the early development of an intermo- dal calibration of the body. This calibration is interpreted as the perceptual foundation of the body schema and the early expression of an ecological self.