Motor Development: Embodied, Embedded, Enculturated, and Enabling
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Motor development and psychological development are fundamentally related, but researchers typically consider them separately. In this review, we present four key features of infant motor development and show that motor skill acquisition both requires and reflects basic psychological functions. ( a) Motor development is embodied: Opportunities for action depend on the current status of the body. ( b) Motor development is embedded: Variations in the environment create and constrain possibilities for action. ( c) Motor development is enculturated: Social and cultural influences shape motor behaviors. ( d) Motor development is enabling: New motor skills create new opportunities for exploration and learning that instigate cascades of development across diverse psychological domains. For each of these key features, we show that changes in infants’ bodies, environments, and experiences entail behavioral flexibility and are thus essential to psychology. Moreover, we suggest that motor development is an ideal model system for the study of psychological development.
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The role of undertaking autonomous activities-even random as infants' motor babbling-for the development of skilful capabilities has been shown by work in embodied robotics adopting the AIF.
“The role of undertaking autonomous activities—even random as infants’ ‘motor babbling’ (i.e. the flailing of the limbs [81,82]; see also [83–85])—for the development of skilful capabilities (i.e. goal-directed actions), has been shown by work in embodied robotics adopting the AIF.”
From Active inference goes to school: the importance of active learning in the age of large language models (2024) · cites this paper as [82]
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Baby Carriage: Infants Walking With Loads
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Self-citationEffects of Infant Development on Mother-Infant Interactions
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Self-citationTask Specificity in Early Oral Motor Development
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Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
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Cited by
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The synergy of embodied cognition and cognitive load theory for optimized learning
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Motor skills predict adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents
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- Authors
- Adolph, K. E., & Hoch, J. E.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Psychology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2019-01-04
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 141-164
- ISSN
- 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2085
- PMC
- PMC6320716
- OpenAlex
- W2892734197
- Cited by
- 580
- References
- 150
- Citations by year
- 2026: 119 · 2025: 104 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 76 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 9
- FWCI
- 6.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- LEGO Foundation
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD086034, R37HD033486, R01HD033486)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Children's Physical and Motor Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- infant motor development, motor skill learning, embodiment, embeddedness, enculturation, behavioral flexibility, psychological development, developmental cascades
- MeSH terms
- Child Development, Culture, Exploratory Behavior, Humans, Infant, Learning, Motor Activity, Motor Skills, Infant Behavior
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