Using social information to guide action: infants' locomotion over slippery slopes.
In uncertain situations such as descending challenging slopes, social signals from caregivers can provide infants with important information for guiding action. Previous work showed that 18-month-old walking infants use social information selectively, only when risk of falling is uncertain. Experiment 1 was designed to alter infants' region of uncertainty for walking down slopes. Slippery Teflon-soled shoes drastically impaired 18-month-olds' ability to walk down slopes compared with walking barefoot or in standard crepe-soled shoes, shifting the region of uncertainty to a shallower range of slopes. In Experiment 2, infants wore Teflon-soled shoes while walking down slopes as their mothers encouraged and discouraged them from walking. Infants relied on social information on shallow slopes, even at 0°, where the probability of walking successfully was uncertain in the Teflon-soled shoes. Findings indicate that infants' use of social information is dynamically attuned to situational factors and the state of their current abilities.
Adolph
Karen E
KE
Department of Psychology, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Room 410, New York, NY 10003, United States. Karen.Adolph@nyu.edu
Karasik
Lana B
LB
Tamis-LeMonda
Catherine S
CS
D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003142:Communication; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012775:Shoes; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D014741:Video Recording; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology