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Protocol Number:
03-CH-0069
- Title:
Early Learning and Development Project
- Number:
03-CH-0069
- Summary:
This study will explore how babies become able to use their experience with objects to plan to manipulate them appropriately. For example, an adult knows that picking up a grocery bag full of canned food requires different actions than are needed for lifting an empty bag. This study will examine when and how infants first begin to adapt their actions to manipulate specific objects that weigh different amounts.
Participants will include normal healthy babies within 2 weeks of their first birthday. If the expected results are obtained from testing, 9-month-old children will then be studied to identify a lower age boundary in task performance. If the expected results are not obtained at the 12-month test age, older children will be recruited to participate.
The study involves one 30-minute session with the baby and his or her mother or father. The parent will answer some questions about the family, such as its size and ethnic make-up. The infant will then have small magnetic sensors taped to the underside of each arm and to the back. While sitting on the parent's lap, the infant will be presented with plastic toys, and his or her actions will be measured by the sensors as he or she reaches for and picks up the toys. The sensors will be connected to a computer that will track and record the motion of the infant's arms.
- Sponsoring Institute:
-
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Recruitment Detail
- Type:
Participants currently recruited/enrolled
- Gender:
Male & Female
- Referral Letter Required:
No
- Population Exclusion(s):
None
- Eligibility Criteria:
INCLUSION CRITERIA:
Infants will be selected for inclusion in each study on the basis of age, gestational status (i.e., full-term vs. pre-term birth), visual normality, and general health status.
The initial group will be recruited to participate within two weeks on either side of their first birthday (12 months of age).
Equal numbers of males and females will be recruited to participate. If the sample participating in either experiment fails to perform in the manner expected, additional participants will be recruited at older test ages to identify when in the course of development such behavioral guidance emerges. As successive test ages will be separated by 6 month intervals, independent samples of 18-, then 24-month-old children will be recruited until the expected pattern of adaptive actions is observed (cf. Fossberg, et al., 1992).
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
Infants with a gestational age of less than 36 weeks, and/or those with histories of severe perinatal complications, visual abnormalities, or congenital developmental disorders will not be recruited for participation.
- Special Instructions:
Currently Not Provided
- Keywords:
-
Cognitive Development
-
Motor Planning
-
Categorization
-
Perception
-
Adaptation
- Recruitment Keyword(s):
-
None
- Condition(s):
-
Healthy
-
Infant
- Investigational Drug(s):
- None
- Investigational Device(s):
- None
- Intervention(s):
- None
- Supporting Site:
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Contact(s):
-
Patient Recruitment and Public Liaison Office
Building 61
10 Cloister Court
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4754
Toll Free: 1-800-411-1222
TTY: 301-594-9774 (local),1-866-411-1010 (toll free)
Fax: 301-480-9793
Electronic Mail:prpl@mail.cc.nih.gov
- Citation(s):
-
Adolph KE. Learning in the development of infant locomotion. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 1997;62(3):I-VI, 1-158.
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Baillargeon R. Representing the existence and the location of hidden objects: object permanence in 6- and 8-month-old infants. Cognition. 1986 Jun;23(1):21-41.
-
Bornstein MH, Kessen W, Weiskopf S. Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1976 Feb;2(1):115-29.
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