ABSTRACT
It is well established that haptic exploration is different from visual exploration in many perceptual-motor aspects. But in vision, cognitive factors are also involved and they orient exploratory activity toward one or another property of the stimuli (Neisser, 1976; Piaget & Inhelder, 1947). In haptics, it is likely that these factors play an even more determining role than in vision (Gentaz & Rossetti, 1999). Consequently, it is legitimate to expect to observe a marked evolution of haptic exploration with age. First, the present chapter mainly examines the merging of early tactile abilities in preterm and full-term newborns and the early development in infants during the ¿ rst months of life. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the manual perception of objects in human infants. Earlier, newborns had typically been described as mainly displaying reÀ ex reactions and clumsy arm movements. In particular, newborns’ hands have often been described as closed, or exhibiting either grasping or avoidance reÀ exes, which are inappropriate behaviours for holding an object and gathering and processing information (Katz, 1925/1989; Piaget & Inhelder, 1947; Twitchell, 1965). However, besides possessing manual reÀ exes, newborns and infants are also able to handle small objects and to perceive their properties. Second, this chapter examines some work concerning the haptic perception of objects from a preschool age until adulthood. Finally, in contrast to the growing and large literature on aging and visual perception, this chapter presents the few studies that have examined the potential effects of aging upon tactile perception.
