In order to benefit from the exploration of their body and their physical and social environment, infants need to detect sensorimotor contingencies linking their actions to sensory feedback. This ability, which seems to be present in babies from birth and even in utero, has been widely used by researchers in their study of early development. However, a careful look at the literature, particularly recent literature, suggests that babies may not be uniformly sensitive to all sensorimotor contingencies. This literature review examines in detail the mechanism of sensorimotor contingency detection in infants before the age of one year. Four aspects of sensorimotor contingency detection are considered: characteristics of action and feedback, contingency parameters, exposure conditions, and inter-individual differences. For each topic we highlight what favours and what hinders the detection of sensorimotor contingencies in infants. Our review also demonstrates the limitations of our knowledge about sensorimotor contingency detection. We advocate the importance of making progress in this field at a time when sensorimotor contingency detection is of major interest in developmental robotics and artificial intelligence.
Detection of sensorimotor contingencies in infants before the age of one year: a comprehensive review
