THE EFFECT OF PROXIMAL AND DISTAL FEEDBACK ON THE CONTINGENCY LEARNING OF 6- AND 12-MONTH-OLD NORMAL AND PERINATALLY COMPROMISED INFANTS

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Abstract
Acquisition of a manipulative response under proximal and distal contingent feedback was examined in 6- and 12-month-old normal infants, and infants who in the perinatal period had experienced either CNS-related risk or non-CNS-related risks. Both risk groups experienced marked difficulty with the proximal and distal contingency tasks. With proximal feedback 6-month-old CNS-related risk and non-CNS-related risk groups failed to learn to control the contingency, whereas at 12 months all groups learned. The distal feedback task also differentiated between the normal and atypical groups, though only at the 12-month level. The findings also revealed a lag in the performance of the 12-month CNS-related risk group. The results are discussed in terms of attentional factors and the possible use of contingency procedures for investigating the effects of compromise in early infancy is noted.