Body scale and infant grip configurations

Abstract

This study examined whether hand/object size ratios define common boundaries to the grip configuration patterns of infants and adults. A group of 5- to 8-month-old infants and a group of adults engaged in a displacement grasping task with inverted cups that varied in size. The findings showed that infant and adult grip configurations varied systematically with object size: More digits were brought into the contact grip configurations with increasing object size. Furthermore, when object size was scaled to hand size, common dimensionless ratios defined the grasping patterns and transitions between grasping patterns in a similar manner for both adults and infants. Consistent with a dynamical view of the development of coordination, the strong role of body scale on the developmental prehensile coordination pattern was observed for a given set of task constraints.