Infants' tactual discriminative abilities and intermodal transfer were investigated in two research studies which endeavoured to answer two questions: can infants aged 4–5 months process and discriminate tactually information about different spatial arrangements of elements of an object, in the absence of visual control, and secondly, can they transfer this information from touch to vision? Two experiments were conducted involving a habituation procedure and a procedure which tests reaction to novelty. Infants were found to be able to discriminate tactually between different spatial arrangements of the three elements of an object (experiment 1), and to transfer this information to the visual mode (experiment 2). These findings constitute new data on intermodal functioning in babies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BornsteinM HFerdinandsenKGrossC G, 1981“The perception of symmetry in infancy”Developmental Psychology1782–86
2.
BryantP EJonesPClaxtonVPerkinsG H, 1972“Recognition of shapes across modalities by infants”Nature (London)240303–304
3.
BushnellE N, 1982“Visual-tactual knowledge in 8–9? and 11-month old infants”Infant Behavior and Development563–75
4.
BushnellE N, 1986“The basis of infant visual – tactual functioning—amodal dimensions or multimodal compounds” in Advances in Infancy ResearchVolume 4, Eds LipsittL PRovee-CollierC K (Norwood, NJ: Ablex) pp 182–194
5.
BushnellE NWeinbergN, 1987“Infants' detection of visual – tactual discrepancies: asymmetries that indicate a directive role of visual information”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance13601–608
6.
FontaineRPieraut-Le BonniecG, 1988“Postural evolution and integration of the prehension gesture in children aged 4 to 10 months”British Journal of Developmental Psychology6223–233
7.
GibsonJ J, 1962“Observations on active touch”Psychological Review69477–491
8.
GottfriedA WRoseS ABridgerW H, 1977“Cross-modal transfer in human infants”Child Development48118–124
9.
von HofstenC, 1979“Development of visually guided reaching: The approach phase”Journal of Human Movement Studies5160–178
10.
von HofstenCFazel-ZandyS, 1984“Development of visually guided hand orientation in reaching”Journal of Experimental Child Psychology38208–219
11.
von HofstenCRönnqvistL, 1988“Preparation for grasping an object: a developmental study”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance14610–621
12.
JeannerodM, 1984“The timing of natural prehension movements”Journal of Motor Behavior16235–254
13.
LockmanJ JAshmeadG HBushnellE W, 1984“The development of anticipatory hand orientation during infancy”Journal of Experimental Child Psychology37176–186
14.
MorrongielloBRoccaP, 1986“Age-related changes in reaching behavior”paper presented at the International Conference for Infant Studies, Los Angeles, CA
15.
Pieraut-Le BonniecG, 1985“Hand-eye coordination and infants' construction of convexity and concavity”British Journal of Developmental Psychology3273–280
16.
Pieraut-Le BonniecG, 1986“Genèse des propriétés des objets chez le nourrisson: propriété physique de concavité et propriété fonctionnelle de contenant”Psychologie Française3173–78
17.
PineauAStreriA, 1985“Étude de l'invariance d'une relation spatiale chez les bébés de 4 à 9 mois: être entre 2 objets”Année Psychologique85489–502
18.
RoseS AGottfriedA WBridgerW H, 1981a“Cross-modal transfer in 6-month-old infants”Developmental Psychology17661–669
19.
RoseS AGottfriedA WBridgerW H, 1981b“Cross-modal transfer and information processing by the sense of touch in infancy”Developmental Psychology1790–98
20.
RoseS ARuffH A, 1987“Cross-modal abilities in human infants” in Handbook of Infant Developmentsecond edition Ed. OsofskyJ D (New York: Wiley) in press
21.
RuffH AKohlerC J, 1978“Tactual-visual transfer in six-month-old infants”Infant Behavior and Development1259–264
22.
StreriA, 1987“Tactile discrimination of shape and intermodal transfer in 2- to 3-month old infants”British Journal of Developmental Psychology5213–220
23.
StreriAPêcheuxM G, 1986a“Tactual habituation and discrimination of form in infancy: A comparison with vision”Child Development57100–104
24.
StreriAPêcheuxM G, 1986b“Vision to touch and touch to vision transfer of form in 5-month-old infants”British Journal of Developmental Psychology4161–167
25.
StreriASpelkeE S, 1988“Haptic perception of objects in infancy”Cognitive Psychology201–23
26.
StreriASpelkeE S, 1989“Effects of motion and figural goodness on haptic object perception in infancy”Child Development601111–1125
27.
WagnerS HSakovitsL J, 1986“Process analysis of infant visual and cross-modal recognition memory: implications for an amodal code” in Advances in Infancy ResearchVolume 4, Eds LipsittL PRovee-CollierC K (Norwood, NJ: Ablex) pp 195–217
