Valentina Focaroli

Delay Choice Versus Delay Maintenance: Different Measures of Delayed Gratification in Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)

Delaying gratification involves 2 components: (1) delay choice (selecting a delayed reward over an immediate one) and (2) delay maintenance (sustaining the decision to delay gratification even if the immediate reward is available during the delay). Two tasks most commonly have explored these components in primates: the intertemporal choice task and the accumulation task. It is unclear whether these tasks provide equivalent measures of delay of gratification. Here, we compared the performance on the intertemporal choice task and the accumulation task of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) belonging to 2 study populations. We found only limited evidence of a significant correlation in performance. Consequently, in contrast to what is often assumed, our data provide only partial support for the hypothesis that these tasks provide equivalent measures of delay of gratification.

Development of goal-directed action selection guided by intrinsic motivations: an experiment with children.

Action selection is extremely important, particularly when the accomplishment of competitive tasks may require access to limited motor resources. The spontaneous exploration of the world plays a fundamental role in the development of this capacity, providing subjects with an increasingly diverse set of opportunities to acquire, practice and refine the understanding of action–outcome connection. The computational modeling literature proposed a number of specific mechanisms for autonomous agents to discover and target interesting outcomes: intrinsic motivations hold a central importance among those mechanisms. Unfortunately, the study of the acquisition of action–outcome relation was mostly carried out with experiments involving extrinsic tasks, either based on rewards or on predefined task goals. This work presents a new experimental paradigm to study the effect of intrinsic motivation on action–outcome relation learning and action selection during free exploration of the world. Three- and four-year-old children were observed during the free exploration of a new toy: half of them were allowed to develop the knowledge concerning its functioning; the other half were not allowed to learn anything. The knowledge acquired during the free exploration of the toy was subsequently assessed and compared.

Performance of Motor Sequences in Children at Heightened vs. Low Risk for ASD: A Longitudinal Study from 18 to 36 Months of Age

Recent research shows that motor difficulties are a prominent component of the behavioral profile of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are also apparent from early in development in infants who have an older sibling with ASD (High Risk; HR). Delays have been reported for HR infants who do and who do not receive an eventual diagnosis of ASD. A growing body of prospective studies has focused on the emergence of early motor skills primarily during the first year of life. To date, however, relatively little work has examined motor skills in the second and third years. Thus, the present research was designed to investigate motor performance in object transport tasks longitudinally in HR and LR (Low Risk) children between the ages of 18 and 36 months. Participants (15 HR children and 14 LR children) were observed at 18, 24, and 36 months. Children completed two motor tasks, the Ball Task and the Block Task, each of which included two conditions that varied in terms of the precision demands of the goal action. Kinematic data were acquired via two magneto inertial sensors worn on each wrist. In the Block Task, HR children reached more slowly (i.e., mean acceleration was lower) compared to LR children. This finding is in line with growing evidence of early delays in fine motor skills in HR children and suggests that vulnerabilities in motor performance may persist into the preschool years in children at risk for ASD.

False belief understanding and “cool” inhibitory control in 3-and 4-years-old Italian children

During preschool years, major developments occur in both executive function and theory of mind (ToM), and several studies have demonstrated a correlation between these processes. Research on the development of inhibitory control (IC) has distinguished between more cognitive, “cool” aspects of self-control, measured by conflict tasks, that require inhibiting an habitual response to generate an arbitrary one, and “hot,” affective aspects, such as affective decision making, measured by delay tasks, that require inhibition of a prepotent response. The aim of this study was to investigate the relations between 3- and 4-year-olds’ performance on a task measuring false belief understanding, the most widely used index of ToM in preschoolers, and three tasks measuring cognitive versus affective aspects of IC. To this end, we tested 101 Italian preschool children in four tasks: (a) the Unexpected Content False Belief task, (b) the Conflict task (a simplified version of the Day–Night Stroop task), (c) the Delay task, and (d) the Delay Choice task. Children’s receptive vocabulary was assessed by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test. Children’s performance in the False Belief task was significantly related only to performance in the Conflict task, controlling for vocabulary and age. Importantly, children’s performance in the Conflict task did not significantly correlate with their performance in the Delay task or in the Delay Choice task, suggesting that these tasks measure different components of IC. The dissociation between the Conflict and the Delay tasks may indicate that monitoring and regulating a cool process (as flexible categorization) may involve different abilities than monitoring and regulating a hot process (not touching an available and highly attractive stimulus or choosing between a smaller immediate option and a larger delayed one). Moreover, our findings support the view that “cool” aspects of IC and ToM are interrelated, extending to an Italian sample of children previous findings on an association between self-control and ToM.

A technological approach to studying motor planning ability in children at high risk for ASD

In this work we propose a new method to study the development of motor planning abilities in children and, in particular, in children at high risk for ASD. Although several modified motor signs have been found in children with ASD, no specific markers enabling the early assessment of risk have been found yet. In this work, we discuss the problem posed by objective and quantitative behavioral analysis in non-structured environment. After an initial description of the main constraints imposed by the ecological approach, a technological and methodological solution to these issues is presented. Preliminary results on 12 children are reported and briefly discussed.

A new research method to test auditory preferences in young listeners: Results from a consonance versus dissonance perception study

To date, behavioural procedures adopted to assess sound preferences in young children have evaluated the responses of participants while listening to the stimuli administered by the experimenter. Due to the difficulties which may arise in the interpretation of the results, recent studies have suggested some limitations to these procedures, stimulating the further development of behavioural methods. Here, we introduce a new method for testing sound preferences in children, in which participants actively produce the stimuli during the experimental session. The apparatus consists of a musical lever which emits different sounds depending on its rotation around a hinge. The device was programmed to emit consonant and dissonant harmonic intervals. The procedure has been tested with 22 participants from 19 to 40 months of age. Results show that: (a) sound emission strongly stimulates toy manipulation; (b) the examined participants distinguished the two types of sounds, showing a preference for producing consonant over dissonant stimuli. This method could be used to study a wide range of sound qualities in young listeners, such as rhythm or pitch. Grounded in the mutual interaction between perception and action, this procedure is in line with recent research highlighting the role of embodiment in the perception of music.

Children’s Object Manipulation: A Tool for Knowing the External World and for Communicative Development

The progressive acquisition of manipulative skill is an important developmental milestone. It provides infants with an increasing set of opportunities for knowing the external world and for acquiring abilities also relevant to other domains, most especially social interaction. The ability to use the hands to grasp and extend an object in a directed fashion toward an interlocutor facilitates the establishment of shared attention. Thus, the progression in manipulative ability can serve as an agent of change, not only for motor development in general, but also for communication. This chapter will consider the progressive acquisition of manipulative skills during development, their significance for knowing the external world and, in particular, their close relation to the communicative development of children.

A sensor-based approach to study sound perception in children

In the present paper we describe an instrumented toy to study auditory preferences in young children. After brief considerations on the theoretical framework, the design of the mechanical, electronic and software components of the system is presented. The system allows for: (a) producing audio stimuli according to how children play with the toy; (b) assessing childrens motor behaviour during the interaction. The device is provided with a sensor core enabling the assessment of manipulation in terms of angular displacement with errors lower than 1°. The laboratory validation is presented and discussed in details. Moreover, a pilot trial on two children aged 34 and 35 months is described and discussed. Results show the appropriateness of the technology to the experimental aims, and encourage research on methods based on the interaction between perception and action to investigate music preferences in young listeners.

The sound of actions: A new tool to study music perception in young children

In this work we describe a new sensing technique to study auditory preferences in young children based on the interaction between perception and action. Manipulation is assessed thanks to a novel device instrumented with a magneto-inertial sensing core. This system allows estimating the manipulation in terms of angular displacements with errors lower than Io. The laboratory validation is presented and discussed in details. Moreover, a pilot trial on two children aged 34 and 35 months is reported to evaluate the appropriateness of the technology to the experimental aims. Preliminary results foster the application of this method to investigate music preferences in young listeners.