INFANTS PREDICTIVE REACHING FOR MOVING-OBJECTS IN THE DARK

Infants were presented with a moving object under 2 lighting condition s to investigate the role of vision in early reaching. The motion of t he target object. also allowed for an analysis of the infants' ability to use a predictive style of reaching. Infants were tested twice, at 5 and 7.5 months of age, with a moving object in the light and the sam e object painted with luminescent paint in the dark. Infants successfu lly contacted the glowing object on about half of their attempts at bo th ages, although 7.5 month-olds reached more often. Infants also took into account the motion of the target object by aiming their reaches ahead of the object and by reaching with their contralateral hand. The se results suggest that proprioceptive feedback and sight of the targe t allow for successful reaching with limited visual information, even in relatively complex reaching tasks. The infants' success also demons trates their ability to adapt their movements and reaching strategy to the speed and trajectory of the target object in order to reach predi ctively.