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Visual Preferences for Biological Motion Following the Stepping Reflex in Five-Month-Old Infants
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  • Isabel C. Lisboa,
  • Juliana Serra,
  • Katharina Kaduk,
  • Alfredo F. Pereira,
  • Vincent M. Reid
Isabel C. Lisboa
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Centro de Tecnologias e Sistemas

Corresponding Author:isabel.lisboa@psi.uminho.pt

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Juliana Serra
Universidade do Minho Centro de Investigacao em Psicologia
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Katharina Kaduk
Lancaster University Department of Psychology
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Alfredo F. Pereira
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Centro de Tecnologias e Sistemas
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Vincent M. Reid
The University of Waikato School of Psychology
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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.
27 Sep 2024Submitted to Infant and Child Development: prenatal, childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood
27 Sep 2024Submission Checks Completed
27 Sep 2024Assigned to Editor
04 Dec 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned