Sensitivity to Visual-Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy

Jannath Begum Ali*, Rhiannon L. Thomas, Stephanie Mullen Raymond, Andrew J. Bremner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4- (n = 15) and 6-month-old (n = 12) infants’ visual preferences for visual-tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4- and 6-month-olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual-tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual-tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6- (Experiment 1), and 4-month-olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual-tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching.

Original languageEnglish
JournalChild Development
Early online date13 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 13 Sept 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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