Midreach Correction in 7-Month-Olds

Abstract

In recent work, it has been suggested that infant reaching is composed of a sequence of perception-action cycles in which the positions of the hand and the target are assessed and actions are generated that bring the hand to the target. In the present work, the author examined the ability of 7-month-old infants (N = 12) to correct reaches in midflight when a target location was shifted. The results showed that on the majority of shift trials, the infants corrected hand direction in midreach and that the latency of correction was 200-400 ms. Although the present results are limited to the case of the infant's response to a target shift, they are consistent with the hypothesis that infants monitor the positions of the hand and the target during the reach and are able to adjust for any errors of movement.

Key Words:

• correction
• infants
• reaching
• submovements