Learned responses to movement in neonates

✍ Scribed by Dr. Barrie Evans

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 413 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-1630
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.420130113

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Numerous previous reports have pointed to the importance of movement (vestibular) stimulation in early infancy. Nevertheless, we have currently no clear understanding of these effects. The present paper looks at the role of movement stimulation in the modification of inborn organized patterns of response. Two laboratory experiments are reported in which newborn infants were presented with a cue (movement stimulus) which was either paired with dextrose presentation (experimental group) or not paired (control group). The experimental and control groups differed on the pattern of sucking in extinction, indicating an effect due to the contiguous presentation of movement and dextrose. Those experiments provide an analog for some naturally occurring conditions in early infancy and support some Soviet observations on the development of the earliest conditioned responses.