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Sensitivity to Visual‐Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy
Author(s) -
Begum Ali Jannath,
Thomas Rhian L.,
Mullen Raymond Stephanie,
Bremner Andrew J.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13428
Subject(s) - visual perception , perception , tactile stimuli , psychology , tactile perception , stimulus (psychology) , audiology , cognitive psychology , sensory system , neuroscience , medicine
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.