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HealthyNCT00053469

Infant s Examination and Manipulation of Objects

An observational study of Healthy and Infant, run by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

This study will explore how babies become able to use their experience with objects to plan to manipulate them appropriately. For example, an adult knows that picking up a grocery bag full of canned food requires different actions than are needed for lifting an empty bag. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages Up to 2 years
Conditions the study is for
Healthy, Infant
How many people
350 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
28 Jan 2003to 30 Mar 2015
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Up to 2 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child

Who may be able to join

  • Infants will be selected for inclusion in each study on the basis of age, gestational status (i.e., full-term vs. pre-term birth), visual normality, and general health status.
  • The initial group will be recruited to participate within two weeks on either side of their first birthday (12 months of age).
  • Equal numbers of males and females will be recruited to participate. If the sample participating in either experiment fails to perform in the manner expected, additional participants will be recruited at older test ages to identify when in the course of development such behavioral guidance emerges. As successive test ages will be separated by 6 month intervals, independent samples of 18-, then 24-month-old children will be recruited until the expected pattern of adaptive actions is observed (cf. Fossberg, et al., 1992).

Who cannot join

  • Infants with a gestational age of less than 36 weeks, and/or those with histories of severe perinatal complications, visual abnormalities, or congenital developmental disorders will not be recruited for participation.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Early Learning and Development Project

This study will explore how babies become able to use their experience with objects to plan to manipulate them appropriately. For example, an adult knows that picking up a grocery bag full of canned food requires different actions than are needed for lifting an empty bag. This study will examine when and how infants first begin to adapt their actions to manipulate specific objects that weigh different amounts.

Participants will include normal healthy babies within 2 weeks of their first birthday. If the expected results are obtained from testing, 9-month-old children will then be studied to identify a lower age boundary in task performance. If the expected results are not obtained at the 12-month test age, older children will be recruited to participate.

Read more

The study involves one 30-minute session with the baby and his or her mother or father. The parent will answer some questions about the family, such as its size and ethnic make-up. The infant will then have small magnetic sensors taped to the underside of each arm and to the back. While sitting on the parent s lap, the infant will be presented with plastic toys, and his or her actions will be measured by the sensors as he or she reaches for and picks up the toys. The sensors will be connected to a computer that will track and record the motion of the infant s arms.

...

Read the detailed description

The major objective of this research is to better understand the functional significance of object categorization in early development. The proposed work is designed to examine the emergence of infants ability to access internal categorical representations in service of planning actions on the external environment. Representation, in this capacity, refers simply to stored information that can influence later behavior. Categorization refers to the treatment of discriminable objects as equivalent in some way. Even very young infants appear able to visually categorize diverse sets of discriminable patterns or objects, and can form internal representations of such bounded collections. Much less is known, however, about infants ability to actually utilize such representations in the guidance of goal directed action. The present research is designed to characterize the functional and behavioral significance of object representations in infancy, focusing particularly on categorically organized representations. The primary research strategy to be used consists of analyzing infants examination and manipulation of novel objects that vary both in visual (i.e., shape and color) as well as nonvisual dimensions (i.e., weight). In a laboratory procedure, twelve-month old infants will explore novel objects of different weights, and their subsequent handling of modified test objects will be measured with an electronic motion analysis system. Kinematic analyses of infants actions on the test objects will reveal how these actions were prepared in relation to their previous experience with similar objects.

Conditions
Healthy, Infant
Keywords
Cognitive Development, Motor Planning, Categorization, Perception, Adaptation

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted30 Jan 2003 (estimated)
  2. Study start28 Jan 2003
  3. Study completion30 Mar 2015

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Enrolment
350 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00053469
Sponsor's protocol ID
030069
Other IDs
03-CH-0069
Status last verified
30 Mar 2015
First submitted
30 Jan 2003
Last updated
17 Dec 2019
Results posted
No

Publications

  • Adolph KE. Learning in the development of infant locomotion. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 1997;62(3):I-VI, 1-158.

    PubMed 9394468
  • Baillargeon R. Representing the existence and the location of hidden objects: object permanence in 6- and 8-month-old infants. Cognition. 1986 Jun;23(1):21-41. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(86)90052-1. No abstract available.

    PubMed 3742989
  • Bornstein MH, Kessen W, Weiskopf S. Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1976 Feb;2(1):115-29. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.2.1.115.

    PubMed 1262792

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Healthy and Infant, run by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 17 Dec 2019. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00053469, which also lists 3 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 17 Dec 2019.

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