Action Interrupted: Movement and Breakpoints in the Processing of Motion Violations in Toddlers and Adults

Abstract

From early in development, segmenting events unfolding in the world in meaningful ways renders input more manageable and facilitates interpretation and prediction. Yet, little is known about how children process action structure in events composed of multiple coarse-grained actions. More importantly, little is known about the time course of action processing in young children or about the specific features that recruit attention. This is particularly true when we consider action that pauses unexpectedly—as actions sometimes do—thereby violating the expectation of a continuous unfolding of motion. We assessed visual preference to intact and disrupted actions embedded within a multiaction event in toddlers and adults. In 1 condition, pauses were inserted at intact action boundaries, whereas in the other condition, they disrupted action. Attention in both groups was recruited to the disrupted relative to intact events. Time-course analyses, however, revealed developmental differences in sensitivity to the movement features (e.g., motion, pauses, and transitions) of disrupted events.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health Award HD468058 to the first author and does not necessarily represent the views of the National Institutes of Health.