Visual Preferences for Biological Motion Following the Stepping Reflex
in Five-Month-Old Infants
Abstract
Selecting where to look is one of the primary tools for active learning
about the world during infancy. Despite this, the determinants of infant
visual attention and perceptual preferences remain unclear. In the
present study, we investigated the role of active experience in infant
perception. We induced the stepping reflex in five-month-old infants
(N=57, n=51). In a follow-up task, we measured their visual preference
towards a coherent point-light walker when contrasted with a scrambled
control. We found a positive correlation between the number of steps
produced and the proportion of looking at the coherent point-light
walker. This correlation was only significant in our female sample of
infants, who have less leg mass (on average) than male infants. Our
results highlight the importance of the frequency but also of
quality of stepping when exploring relationships between visual
experience and action experience during infancy. This work provides
further evidence that the experience of the stepping reflex might
contribute to the perception of biological of motion and to infant’s
social-cognitive development.