SPATIAL DETERMINANTS IN THE PERCEPTION OF SELF-PRODUCED LEG MOVEMENTSBY 3-MONTH-OLD TO 5-MONTH-OLD INFANTS

Sixty 3- and 4-5-month-old infants were simultaneously presented with 2 on-line video images of their own legs. In 3 experiments, the tempor al contingency between the 2 images and the infant's actual movements was maintained constant while their spatial relationships were systema tically manipulated. In Experiment 1, both spatial orientation and dir ectionality of movement on the visual display were varied. In Experime nt 2, only directionality of movement was varied. In Experiment 3, onl y spatial orientation was varied. Analyses focused on infants' prefere ntial looking and relative amount of leg activity while looking at eit her view. Results show that both groups of infants actively compared a nd explored the 2 views of their legs. They looked significantly longe r and generated significantly more leg activity while looking at the v iew displaying a left-right inversion. These results demonstrate that the perception of self-produced leg movements by young infants is part ially determined by spatial information about movement directionality. The results are interpreted as evidence of an early detection of inte rmodal invariants which specify the body as a situated agent in the en vironment.