Excerpt: Postural, Visual, and Manual Coordination in the Development of Prehension

This experiment investigated real-time and developmental cascades of postural, visual, and manual actions for object prehension in 38 6- to 12-month-old infants and 8 adults. Participants’ task was to retrieve a toy as they spun past it at different speeds on a motorized chair. Head-mounted eye trackers recorded visual actions and video captured postural and manual actions. Prehension performance decreased at faster speeds. Prehension played out in a sequence of postural-visual-manual behaviors—first turning the head, then bringing the toy into the field of view, then lifting a hand toward the toy, and then visually fixating the toy prior to contact and retrieval. More efficient planning of manual actions and more sitting experience were related to better prehension performance.