Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Jones, Nancy Aaron

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Kelso, J. A. Scott

Abstract

The mobile conjugate reinforcement (MCR) paradigm, made famous by Carolyn Rovee-Collier and her colleagues (Rovee & Rovee, 1969), has long been used to study infant learning and memory. In MCR studies, the infant's foot is tethered to a mobile hanging overhead, and the mobile responds directly to the infant's kicking. Infant kicking rate triples within a few minutes of interacting with the mobile. This result was classically interpreted as evidence of reinforcement learning. Kelso and Fuchs (2016) reinterpreted it as evidence that a coordinative structure, or functional synergy, forms between infant and mobile, triggering a positive feedback loop between the two. Positive feedback is proposed to give rise to an `Aha!' moment as the (prelinguistic) infant suddenly realizes it is an agent in control of the mobile's motion. While some have theorized the realization of self as causal agent emerges from organism-environment interactions, Kelso and Fuchs (2016) developed a mathematical model of the coordination dynamics between the infant and mobile, providing mechanistic explanations for the formation of agency. The current study was the first to measure movement of the mobile and analyze how dynamics of coordination between infant and mobile relate to possible transitions from spontaneous to intentional action. Novel measures of infant and mobile dynamics were used to test model predictions. Infant activity dropped drastically in response to non-contingent mobile movement and remained suppressed at the start of infant~mobile contingency, suggesting that mobile movement triggers a qualitatively different context for infants. This finding challenges the widely held assumption that mobile movement rewards and stimulates infant movement and calls into question the sufficiency of standard contingency detection cut-offs and explanations of conjugate reinforcement learning. Assessing coordination dynamics on a fine time scale using new analytical techniques made it possible to identify moments of agentive realization. Approaching agency as a relational phenomenon allowed for detailed characterization of the infant~mobile relationship and its role in the emergence of causal agency. In addition, the results revealed a number of surprising insights into agency formation such as the critical role of inactivity for agentive discovery and the possibility of intermediary stages or quasi-agentive states.

Extent

157 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2022.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013967

Format

pdf

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