A Motor Learning Paradigm Combining Technology and Associative Learning to Assess Prone Motor Learning in Infants.

Background: Associative learning is the ability to discover a relationship between two or more events. We combined principles of learning and technology to develop a paradigm to assess associative learning in prone.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether 3- to 6-month-old infants can demonstrate: (1) short-term learning of an association between their upper body movements in prone and activation of a toy, and (2) retention of the association learned on day 1, 24 hours later.

Methods: Twenty-eight infants who were 3 to 6 months of age and who were typically developing were tested for 2 consecutive days in an instrumented play gym. Both days of testing had a baseline and 4 acquisition phases (2 minutes each). During the acquisition phase, the toy activated for a maximum of 10 seconds when the infant's head was above a threshold. A criterion was set a priori to distinguish infants as short-term learners and retainers of the association learned on day 1.

Results: Of 28 infants, 22 and 14 infants completed all phases of the testing on day 1 and day 2, respectively. Fourteen (50%) of the infants met the criteria for short-term learners. On day 2, there was an analyzable sample of 9 short-term learners. Three of the 12 short-term learners (25%) demonstrated retention on day 2.

Conclusion: Consistent with prior infant motor learning research, half of the infants demonstrated associative learning in this novel assessment in prone; however, based on study criteria, the infants had limited retention of the association on day 2.