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Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research 2-3/2004

01-04-2004 | Original Article

The role of action effects in infants’ action control

Auteurs: Petra Hauf, Birgit Elsner, Gisa Aschersleben

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 2-3/2004

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Abstract

In adults, the selection and the planning of actions are influenced by the anticipation of desired action effects. However, the role of action effects for action control in infants is still an unresolved issue. One important prerequisite for infants’ action control is that infants are able to relate certain movements to certain effects. To test this assumption, it was investigated how infants’ action control is affected by action effects. By applying an imitation paradigm, we studied 12- and 18-month-old infants who first observed an adult experimenter demonstrating a three-step action sequence on a toy bear. In three experimental groups, the second action step, the third action step, or no action step elicited an arbitrary sound as an additional acoustic action effect. It was coded how often each of the target actions was performed by the infant in a subsequent 90-s test phase. As predicted, the frequency of the infant’s target action varied depending on which action step elicited the action effect. In both age groups, the target action that was combined with an acoustical effect was not only produced more often but also occurred with lower latency and was in most cases the first target action shown by the infants. These results are interpreted as evidence of the important role of action effects in infants’ action control.
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Metagegevens
Titel
The role of action effects in infants’ action control
Auteurs
Petra Hauf
Birgit Elsner
Gisa Aschersleben
Publicatiedatum
01-04-2004
Uitgeverij
Springer-Verlag
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 2-3/2004
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-003-0149-2

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