Cue salience and infant perseverative reaching: tests of the dynamic field theory.

Skilled behavior requires a balance between previously successful behaviors and new behaviors appropriate to the present context. We describe a dynamic field model for understanding this balance in infant perseverative reaching. The model predictions are tested with regard to the interaction of two aspects of the typical perseverative reaching task: the visual cue indicating the target and the memory demand created by the delay imposed between cueing and reaching.

Young infants reach correctly in A-not-B tasks: on the development of stability and perseveration.

This paper examines the development of perseverative reaching in the A-not-B task. We describe two recent models that view perseveration as a sign of developmental progress toward stability. In Experiment 1, we test the novel prediction from both models that very young infants should not perseverate in the A-not-B task whereas older infants should.