Visually Preadapted Constituents of Manipulatory Action

Abstract

Every two weeks infants 8 to 22 weeks old were shown two balls, one at a time. Although both balls were within reach, one was of a graspable size while the other was too large to grasp. Before the infants were capable of reaching, grasping at the midline was more likely to occur in the presence of the graspable rather than the non-graspable ball. This suggests that grasping activity is coordinated with visual information about the graspability of an object even before the infant has had experience reaching.