Infant exploratory movements to localize a sound object in peri- and extrapersonal space

HÜG, M. X.; TOMMASINI, F. C.; BERMEJO, F.; HINALAF, M. A.; VERGARA, R.; ORTIZ SKARP, A. H.; ARIAS, C.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 22nd International Congress on Acoustics ICA 2016; 2016

ICA, FIA, AdAA

Embodied cognition approaches claim that perception is not possible without action. To perceive implies extract meaningful information from a complex environment by generating relevant sensory information contingent with current motor behavior. Since birth, the child's behavior is oriented towards an active exploration of the environment. Evaluation of infant's spontaneous responses towards sound sources, such as reaching and head turning, has an important role in the increasing interdisciplinary field of developmental psychoacoustics. Movements made by infants of 6 and 12 months old were characterized in a test of auditory distance perception. A sound object was presented to the infant in the dark in his peri (reachable) or extrapersonal (unreachable) space. The infant's behavior was recorded by two cameras mounted above and beside the participant. Micro-level analysis of video data was performed in each trial. Results showed that, even without visual cues, infants adapted his behavior to the ecological properties of the sound source: reaching was observed more frequently if the rattle was in his peripersonal space. Micro-level analysis of real-time sensorimotor organization of two infants revealed a coupling between movement (head and hand) and the sound source presentation.