Projects
EEG study on force adaptation in young and old
M.Sc. Laura Faßbender
The Influence of Context on Predictive Action Planning in Children
M.Sc. Anjuscha Lüthgen
Our everyday lives consist of an unbelievable number of different situations and therefore demand very different actions from us. It is therefore very energy-saving that we already have very specific sequential patterns for actions in mind for many situations, so-called scripts. This means that we don't have to question what we have to do next in every context we know, but can follow a routine sequence pattern (script). For example, we know that we first have to wait for the waiter in a restaurant or raise our hand to answer a question in a lecture. Depending on the context, this leads to the activation of a specific script. Studies with adults have already shown that scripts enable faster and more efficient action planning and execution (Hudson & Fivush, 1991). To date, however, little research has been conducted into the influence of context on predictive action planning in children of kindergarten age. In addition, previous studies have mostly been relatively experimentally oriented and less close to everyday life. For this reason, we are investigating the influence of context on action planning in 3 and 6-year-old children with a table setting task that is close to everyday life. To create a setting that is as natural as possible, we rented two rooms outside the university especially for this study. We set up a kitchen in one room and a bathroom in the other. With the help of a motion capture system (VICON), which records various motor parameters and latencies, we are investigating whether children perform the table setting task faster and more efficiently in the kitchen (context-congruent) than in the bathroom (context-incongruent).
The study is funded by the SFB/TRR 135 of the DFG.
Mental Rotation an Motor Skills
M.Sc. Tharanirakshita Asokan
Development of Mental Rotation from Infancy to Preschool Age
Mental rotation (MR) is our ability to mentally visualise and recognise objects from different perspectives. In simple words, it is the ability to turn objects in your mind. For instance, when you are loading a dishwasher, you have to first think about how to rotate the cup upside down and then place it relative to the other objects. Furthermore, it is linked to later academic success and implications in educational settings. Previous research has shown that crawling infants perform better on mental rotation tasks than non-crawling infants, indicating that self-produced locomotion provides an advantage for MR processing. However, little is known about whether infant MR ability and crawling status can be linked to MR performance at preschool age. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study to test children at two time points. We contacted 9-month-old crawling and non-crawling infants who previously participated in a study by Gerhard (2021) and used this at our time point 1. When the children were between 4.6 to 6 years of age, they participated in an age-adjusted MR task, this was our time point 2. In this task, children were shown a pair of static images at different angles and asked to point at the object that they thought matched the rotating object on the screen. Our results showed that 9-month-old crawling infants who were good at MR showed greater MR competence at preschool age. This suggests that early MR is linked to later MR, with crawling ability as a driving factor.
Fig.: The age-adjusted MR task. Children were asked to point at the object they thought matched the video.
Link between 3D MR and motor skills
While the link between 3D mental rotation (MR) and motor skills has been established in infancy, little is known about this relationship in preschool-aged children. In this study, we aimed to investigate the connection between 3D MR and motor skills in children aged 4.6 to 6.5 years. We developed a novel 3D MR task using tangible objects, consisting of two mirrored Shepard-Metzler figures and a box with a cut-out in which only one object would fit. The objects were presented in varying orientations, and children were asked to identify the object that would fit, grasp it, and insert it into the box in the correct orientation. We hypothesised that higher rotation angles would increase task difficulty. Motor skills were assessed using a standardised test that included fine motor tasks (e.g., drawing, threading beads) and gross motor tasks (e.g., jumping jacks, running, balancing). Our findings showed that in younger children (4.6–5.5 years), gross motor skills were associated with 3D MR performance, whereas in older children (5.6–6.5 years), fine motor skills were more strongly related to 3D MR. This developmental shift may reflect the increasing refinement of fine motor abilities in response to environmental demands, such as greater use of mobile devices and evolving educational expectations.
Fig.: Representation of a task. Image 1 indicates the task's start, and image 2 shows that once the occluder is lifted, the child points at the object. Images 3 and 4 illustrate the grasping and fitting of the object in the box.
Development of Visuospatial abilities and Motor skills in Preterm Infants
Very preterm infants (born before 32 weeks of gestation) face unique developmental challenges. While we understand how motor experiences influence visuospatial abilities in full-term infants, we know surprisingly little about whether these same relationships exist for preterm children. We're currently testing both very preterm and full-term infants between 9 and 12 months of age, examining their visual prediction abilities and mental rotation skills alongside comprehensive motor assessments. The infants will participate in an infant-controlled habituation task and then a visual prediction task. We use a stationary eye tracker to track their gaze behaviour. Motor skills will be assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 2006). Data collection is ongoing, with recruitment taking place through our collaboration with UKGM.
The studies are funded by the SFB/TRR 135 of the DFG.
KoSMo - Online questionnaire study on early childhood cognitive, linguistic and motor development
Dr. Julia Dillmann
IIn the KosMo project, we study milestones in early childhood development. We want to understand how perception (e.g. seeing, hearing or feeling), thinking, language and action (e.g. motor skills) develop in the first year of life and what kind of interactions exist between these different domains. For instance, previous studies have already shown, that children's motor development is linked to cognitive and language development. However, the extent to which this also applies to the first few months of life has been little researched so far. Therefore, we have put together a short online questionnaire for parents of children aged 4 to 6 months and 12 to 14 months. Preliminary analyses indicate that there are positive correlations between different developmental domains even at the young age of 4 to 6 months.
CoKie - Child social-emotional development & parental stress during Covid-19
Dr. Julia Dillmann
Early childhood development is significantly influenced by what children experience in their everyday life. Since the corona crisis has significantly changed everyday life in almost all families in recent years (e.g. less contact with other families/peers, health/financial fears), we are investigating in a questionnaire study how these changes affect early social-emotional child development as well as parental well-being. Over the past few years, more than 400 families have already participated. Initial results indicate a persistent, increased parental stress (especially among parents of young children) during the course of the pandemic. In addition, increased parental stress seems to be negatively associated with early social-emotional child development. For more information, please click on the following publication link:
Dillmann, J.*, Sensoy, Ö.*, & Schwarzer, G. (2022). Parental perceived stress and its consequences on early social-emotional child development during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Early Childhood Research.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1476718X221083423
Perception and Action
Perception and action, though usually regarded as separate systems, are deeply entwined. Even the most elementary action, like grasping an object, requires a perceptual analysis, such as, for example, of the object’s position in space, in order to be successful. Exactly how this interplay between perception and action develops, that is, how infants and children manage to coordinate perception and action, is one of our central research questions.
Another important issue motivating our research is the development of action planning. Here, we are especially interested in the development of infants’ ability for anticipatory grasp adaptation to different object features like orientation or size. Moreover, we look at the development of toddlers’ and children’s anticipatory adaptation to task demands arising in the context of multi-step actions. One example of such adaptation seen in adults is the end-state comfort effect: when grasping objects, adults adapt their initial hand orientation to insure a comfortable posture at the end position, accepting an uncomfortable orientation at the beginning. The aim of our current research is to better understand the developmental course of efficient grasping and its underlying factors.
Last, but not least, a significant number of our studies has concentrated on issues of action perception. From birth, babies are surrounded by a wealth of social information. Our principal research question in this context has been, when infants begin to regard the actions they see as goal-directed and, which cues can help them understand the underlying structure of people’ s actions.
Clubfoot
In this project, we are interested in the development of children with congenital idiopathic clubfoot. We are particularly interested in the development of spatial-cognitive, language, gross and fine motor skills in the first years of life. Another important issue motivating our research is the social and emotional development. Additionally, we address the question how the parents deal with the impairment of their children.
Collaborators:
Dr. med. Christian-Dominik Peterlein, Mühlenkreiskliniken Bay Oeynhausen
Dr. med. Ute Brückner,Klinik für Kinderchirurgie und -urologie Klinikum Bremen-Mitte
Here you can find our completed projects!