Making the World Behave: A New Embodied Account on Mobile Paradigm

Methodological integrity assessment in the mobile paradigm literature: A lesson for understanding opportunistic use of researcher degrees of freedom in psychology

The mobile paradigm has played a fundamental role in memory development research. One key characteristic of the mobile paradigm literature is that across decades, researchers have faithfully followed a particular methodological protocol with its own unique definitions of learning and memory. To investigate the extent to which these methodological choices affected the results, the literature (77 publications and 505 statistical tests) was evaluated for four frequently encountered research biases. The results suggested that research using the paradigm was conducted with scientific rigor. However, methodological choices along with unique operational definitions of learning and memory accounted for more than half of the findings. Thus, the literature has been contaminated by methodological artifacts due to the opportunistic use of researcher degrees of freedom.

Meaning from movement and stillness: Signatures of coordination dynamics reveal infant agency

How do human beings make sense of their relation to the world and realize their ability to effect change? Applying modern concepts and methods of coordination dynamics, we demonstrate that patterns of movement and coordination in 3 to 4-mo-olds may be used to identify states and behavioral phenotypes of emergent agency. By means of a complete coordinative analysis of baby and mobile motion and their interaction, we show that the emergence of agency can take the form of a punctuated self-organizing process, with meaning found both in movement and stillness.

Dynamical systems model of development of the action differentiation in early infancy: a requisite of physical agency

Young infants are sensitive to whether their body movements cause subsequent events or not during the interaction with the environment. This ability has been revealed by empirical studies on the reinforcement of limb movements when a string is attached between an infant limb and a mobile toy suspended overhead. A previous study reproduced the experimental observation by modeling both the infant's limb and a mobile toy as a system of coupled oscillators. The authors then argued that emergence of agency could be explained by a phase transition in the dynamical system: from a weakly coupled state to a state where the both movements of the limb and the toy are highly coordinated. However, what remains unexplained is the following experimental observation: When the limb is connected to the mobile toy by a string, the infant increases the average velocity of the arm's movement. On the other hand, when the toy is controlled externally, the average arm's velocity is greatly reduced. Since young infants produce exuberant spontaneous movements even with no external stimuli, the inhibition of motor action to suppress the formation of spurious action-perception coupling should be also a crucial sign for the emergence of agency. Thus, we present a dynamical system model for the development of action differentiation, to move or not to move, in the mobile task. In addition to the pair of limb and mobile oscillators for providing positive feedback for reinforcement in the previous model, bifurcation dynamics are incorporated to enhance or inhibit self-movements in response to detecting contingencies between the limb and mobile movements. The results from computer simulations reproduce experimental observations on the developmental emergence of action differentiation between 2 and 3 months of age in the form of a bifurcation diagram. We infer that the emergence of physical agency entails young infants' ability not only to enhance a specific action-perception coupling, but also to decouple it and create a new mode of action-perception coupling based on the internal state dynamics with contingency detection between self-generated actions and environmental events.

Motivation from Agency and Reward in Typical Development and Autism: Narrative Review of Behavioral and Neural Evidence

Our ability to perform voluntary actions and make choices is shaped by the motivation from having control over the resulting effects (agency) and positive outcomes (reward). We offer an overview of distinct and common behavioral and neural signatures of agency and reward. We discuss their typical and atypical developmental trajectories, focusing on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is characterized by neurodiverse processes underlying action selection. We propose that reduced sensitivity to agency and reward in ASD may be related to atypical multisensory processes and motor planning, with potential for understanding restricted and repetitive behaviors. We emphasize the limitations of the existing literature, and prospects for future research. Understanding the neurocognitive processes that shape the way people with ASD select actions and perceive outcomes is essential to support not only learning, but also volition and self-determination.

Learning limb-specific contingencies in early infancy

Most research with the mobile paradigm has the underlying assumption that young infants can selectively move the limb causing the contingent feedback from the mobile while avoiding irrelevant motor responses. Contrary to this long-held belief, others have argued that such differentiation ability is not fully developed early in life. In the current study, we revisited the traditional mobile paradigm with a contemporary research approach (using high-precision motion capture techniques, a yoked-control design, and a large sample size) to investigate whether response differentiation ability emerges before 5 months of age. The data collected from 76 infants (aged between 115 and 159 days) revealed that infants can learn sensorimotor contingencies by increasing the movement of the connected leg relative to their baseline level. However, they did not differentially increase the movement of the leg causing an effect in the environment compared with that of other limbs. Our results illustrate that response differentiation ability emerges later than previously suggested.

Effect of Contingency Paradigm-Based Interventions on Developmental Outcomes in Young Infants: A Systematic Review

PURPOSE

The purpose of this systematic review was to identify controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of contingency paradigm-based interventions to improve feeding, motor, or cognitive outcomes during the first year of life.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

Seventeen studies, including 10 randomized controlled trials, incorporating contingency paradigm-based interventions were identified. Three of 3 trials reported improvements in nutritive sucking using pacifier-activated lullaby in preterm infants before term age. Seven of 12 trials reported improvements in reaching, manual exploration, and kicking behaviors in term and preterm infants; and 6 of 10 trials reported gains in early cognition using sticky mittens and contingent toys.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE

Contingency paradigm-based interventions can improve feeding outcomes in the neonatal intensive care unit in very preterm infants, and increase reaching, and perceptual-cognitive behaviors in term infants. Future research is needed to establish contingency paradigms as an effective early intervention strategy.

WHAT THIS ADDS TO THE EVIDENCE

This review synthesizes a body of literature on contingency paradigm-based interventions and highlights its potential paradigm-based interventions to improve developmental outcomes in infants.