OBJECT AFFORDANCE: ARE ATTEMPTED ROLE DIFFERENTIATED BIMANUAL MANIPULATIONS (RDBMS) RELATED TO SUCCESSFUL RDBMS DURING INFANCY?

Publication Date

4-5-2019

Document Type

Poster

Degree Type

Undergraduate

Department

Psychology

Mentor

Julie Campbell

Mentor Department

Psychology

Abstract

Kimmerle et al. (2010) report that the type of toy presented to an infant increases the probability of a role differentiated bimanual manipulation (RDBM) being performed on a toy. Specifically, toys that have two parts, as opposed to one, are more likely to result in an infant performing an RDBM. These authors did report that infants spend increasing amounts of time performing RDBMs on two part objects across 7 to 13 months. The number of times that an infant will attempt an RDBM before completing this action is not examined. The goal of the current project is to examine whether there are objects for which infants make more attempts before achieving a successful RDBM. We investigated the average number of attempts it takes to successfully complete RDBMs with 32 different objects by analyzing the RDBM actions completed by infants between the ages of 9 months to 14 months. Thirty infants were observed during a play situation in which a researcher presented objects to an infant while seated at a table. Ten infants, who were previously determined to have a left-, right-, or no hand preference for acquiring objects were examined as they manipulated objects that promote RDBMs. During the RDBM task, 32 toys were placed one at a time on the table within reaching distance of the infant. RDBM movements were coded when infants used one hand to stabilize an object and the other hand to manipulate it. The number of attempts and successes that an infant performed with the objects each month were recorded. No RDBM action was coded if infants did not engage in playing with an object or used only one hand to manipulate the toy. Based on previous literature, which shows that infants with a right- or no hand preference perform more RDBMs than those who have a left preference (Babik & Michel, 2016), we predict that the right- and no preference infants will also perform more RDBMs in our sample. Because left-handers have shown inconsistency in their performance, and thus less skill, we expect that these infants will make more RDBM attempts before completing a successful RDBM. This research helps to inform the literature on the development of fine motor skill across infancy, as well as providing researchers with information about which objects that may elicit more RDBMs when a researcher is attempting to observe such an action in an infant.

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