http://hdl.handle.net/1803/210 2013-05-23T23:52:44Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5265 Title: Prehension Enrichment Experience Facilitates Motor and Perceptual-Cognitive Development in Early Infancy Authors: Ballard, Rachel Abstract: Infants received a prehension enrichment experience (active training), which allowed pre-reaching infants to gain experience with prehension before they would normally begin such behaviors. During the prehension enrichment experience, infants received 10-14 ten-minute play sessions wearing “sticky mittens”: mittens with palms covered in the loop side of Velcro, allowing them to pick up small toys covered in Velcro hook. Two months after the enrichment session, infants who received the prehension enrichment experience were compared with age-matched peers who wore “non-sticky mittens” while observing their parents and the experimenter manipulating objects (passive training). The results of this study indicate that two months after the prehension enrichment experience, infants who received active training engaged in more object exploration and exhibited accelerated reasoning about the support relations between objects when compared to infants who received passive training. These results suggest that early prehension enrichment experience facilitates the processes of object exploration and engagement while also enhancing infants’ cognitive and perceptual development. 2013-04-09T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5264 Title: Mismatched Tool: Determining the Properties by which Infants Categorize a Tool as “Spoon” Authors: Greenberg, Sara Abstract: In a study of infant tool use, Barrett, Davis, and Needham (2007) found that previous experience with spoons prevented infants from utilizing an unusual grasp of a teaspoon to complete a novel task. Infants were, however, able to complete this same task with a novel tool that shared many of the spoon’s characteristics. Building on this prior research, the present experiment found that infants between the ages of 13 and 18 months were less likely to solve the lightbox task with the tool featuring a metal bowl similar to the spoon. Infants on the older end of the spectrum were more likely to solve and have shorter latency times than their younger counterparts. Measures of initial grasp and initial attempt were also considered. Results suggest that a metal bowl is one feature of a tool that leads infants to identify the tool as a spoon. 2013-04-08T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5094 Title: The Influence of Prior Reading Instruction and IEP Goals on the Reading Skills of Children with Down Syndrome Authors: Germansky, Sara E. Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between IEP goals and prior reading instruction for children with Down Syndrome, and whether both of those variables had an impact on the children’s reading abilities and potential to learn. 24 children with Down Syndrome between the ages of 7 and 16 participated in a study conducted by Lemons and Fuchs (2010). The raw data was extracted to create kappa coefficients showing the agreement between IEP goals and prior reading instruction. Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients were also created to determine the relations between IEP goals, reading instruction, reading abilities and gain scores on posttest scores. The results showed no significant agreement between IEP goals and reading instruction. There were also significant relations between reading instruction and pre-test scores but not gain scores. There was no relationship between IEP goals and either set of scores. Implications for practice and research are discussed. 2012-01-01T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/4824 Title: The effect of weight distribution and previous experience on tool use training in infancy Authors: Borten, Ariel Abstract: Many different factors play a role in the development of an infant’s ability to use tools. A previous version of the current study examined active versus observational learning on an infant’s ability to be trained to use a novel tool to succeed in a test task. The results showed that both types of learning appeared to be equally effective. This follow-up study added a second factor to examine the effects of training when there is a characteristic about the tool that cannot be determined through visual observation. This time the novel tool had an unexpected weight distribution making the straight handle of the tool much heavier than the round handle. This study showed that the uneven weight distribution of the tool actually resulted in infants having a higher overall success rates during test than in the previous version of the study. This suggests that the uneven weight distribution may have focused infant’s attention on how they were holding the tool therefore increasing their ability to success on the test task. 2011-04-01T05:00:00Z