Postural and Object-Oriented Experiences Advance Early Reaching, Object Exploration, and Means-End Behavior

The effects of 3 weeks of social (control), postural, or object-oriented experiences on 9- to 21-week-old infants' (N = 42) reaching, exploration, and means-end behaviors were assessed. Coders recorded object contacts, mouthing, fingering, attention, and affect from video. Postural and object-oriented experiences advanced reaching, haptic exploration of objects, and developing means-end behavior compared to social experience. Object-oriented experience best-advanced means-end behavior. The results suggest that the development of novel behaviors is dependent on multiple subsystems and can be similarly advanced by addressing a variety of these subsystems. They also suggest that past experiences with active object exploration can facilitate early information processing and the development of early knowledge.