Psych 323: First Reflection Paper

Four Basic Action Systems

Posture, locomotion, manual actions, and facial actions acquired during infancy.

Developmental Systems Perspective

Views motor behavior as embodied, embedded, and enculturated rather than purely reflexive.

Equifinality

Different developmental trajectories that converge on the same motor endpoint.

Multifinality

Developmental trajectories that diverge into different forms from the same starting point.

Limitation of Milestone Charts

They mask individual variability and reflect cultural biases rather than universal sequences.

Posture

The physical foundation on which all other motor actions are built.

Top-Down Postural Control

Postural control develops sequentially down the spine, from neck to hips.

Tripod Sitting

Supporting the torso by propping arms between the legs before independent sitting.

Cultural Impact on Sitting

Caregiving practices that encourage sitting can enable independent sitting before 5 months.

Postural Basis for Exploration

Independent sitting frees the hands, enabling sophisticated 3D visual-manual object exploration.

Newborn Stepping Reflex

Alternating leg movements that disappear mainly due to gravity and increasing leg weight.

Precursory Locomotion Forms

Creative early mobility methods including log rolling, belly crawling, and bum-shuffling.

Early Walking Characteristics

Wide stance, short steps, long double-support periods, and frequent falls.

Role of Practice in Walking

Immense time-distributed practice, not mere maturation, drives improvements in walking skill.

Gahvora Cradling

Traditional Tajik restriction practice that delays crawling, standing, and walking onset.

Developmental Cascades of Walking

Walking improves spatial vision, object transport, caregiver communication, and vocabulary growth.

Prospective Control

Using perceptual information to make accurate real-time decisions about navigating obstacles.

Visual Cliff

Apparatus testing drop-off perception; glass cover allows infants to learn it is safe.

Fetal Action Planning

Fetuses control hand movements, slowing down near delicate targets like the eyes.

Self-Directed Touch

Early touches to the infant's own body that supply tactile and proprioceptive feedback.

Role of Vision in Early Reaching

Infants reach equally well in light and dark without needing sight of their hand.

Reaching vs. Grasping

Proximal arm control develops before distal hand and finger grip control.

Multimodal Object Exploration

Combining looking, fingering, mouthing, and rotating to learn object properties.

Tool Use Acquisition

Understanding spatial means-ends relations and adapting motor grips to achieve goals.

End-State Comfort Planning

Selecting an initially awkward grip so the final position is functional and comfortable.

Suck-Swallow-Breathe Coordination

Precise timing of oral movements enabling infants to feed without choking.

Chewing Skill Progression

Transition from basic jaw movements to adult-like rotary jaw chewing.

Speech Motor Control Development

Infants initial babbling relies on jaw movements before integrating fine lip control.

Eye-Head Coupling

Coordinating head and eye rotations by 6 months to explore surroundings efficiently.

Visual Ecology and Word Learning

Holding an object makes it visually dominant, assisting infants in learning its name.