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The Development of end‐ and beginning‐state comfort in a cup manipulation task
Author(s) -
Scharoun Sara M.,
Bryden Pamela J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21108
Subject(s) - psychology , task (project management) , motor planning , object (grammar) , action (physics) , developmental psychology , developmental age , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , engineering , physics , systems engineering , quantum mechanics
End‐state comfort (ESC) is the tendency to assume comfortable postures at the end of simple object manipulation rather than at the start; and therefore has been used to assess the behavioral effects of motor planning. Adult‐like patterns have been observed at age 9. Observations can extend to joint‐action, such that adults consider the beginning‐state comfort (BSC) of another, without sacrificing ESC; however, trends in children have yet to be delineated. This study investigated the development of ESC and BSC in a cup manipulation task. Three to 12‐year‐olds and adults were asked to pick up a cup and (1) pour a glass of water or (2) pass it to the researcher to pour. Paralleling previous findings, adult‐like patterns of ESC were observed at age 9. Adding to the literature, adult‐like evidence of BSC emerged at the age of 7. Therefore, 7‐year‐olds consider another's BSC; however, cannot facilitate ESC until age 9. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc . Dev Psychobiol 56: 407–420, 2014.