Frames of reference for anticipatory action in 4-month-old infants

The spatial representations of 4-month-old infants were examined in two experiments using a modified version of the visual expectation paradigm (VExP). The experiments were designed in order to determine what spatial frames of reference were available to infants for making anticipatory saccades. In Experiment 1, we found that infants most often used a retinocentric frame of reference that did not take into account their current eye position in making an anticipatory saccade. However, Experiment 2 revealed that under certain conditions infants are more likely to make anticipatory saccades consistent with a body- or object-centred frame of reference. The main difference between the two experiments was the degree to which the featural properties of the stimuli varied. The results shed light on the development of spatial representations for action in infancy.