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Behavioral Sciences
Special Issues
The Role of Early Sensorimotor Experiences in Cognitive Development
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The Role of Early Sensorimotor Experiences in Cognitive Development

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 4968

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Claire D. Monroy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Psychology, Keele University, Newcastle ST5 5BG, UK
Interests: sensorimotor coordination; parent-child interactions; pediatric hearing loss; infant learning; embodied cognition
Dr. Chi-Hsin Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Interests: parent-child interactions; word learning; category learning; statistical language learning; embodied cognition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infants learn about the world through interactions with their environment. We are beginning to understand that early sensory experiences guide the development of the infant mind and its cognitive capacities. Recent technological and methodological advances, such as dual head-mounted eye-tracking, neuroimaging, and even machine learning approaches have created exciting new opportunities to understand the mechanisms that drive infant cognitive development. Although recent advances have been made in understanding the contribution of primary senses such as vision and audition, many questions regarding how sensory input shapes cognitive skills such as learning, numerical representation, memory, attention, and language remain. Further, less studied senses such as touch, taste and smell provide plenty of uncharted territory to explore. Therefore, we are excited to introduce this Special Issue, which focuses on the role of sensorimotor experiences in cognitive development in both typical and atypical development. We welcome original research papers, meta-analyses, and review articles.

Dr. Claire D. Monroy
Dr. Chi-Hsin Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sensorimotor experiences
  • conceptual and sensorimotor representations
  • cognitive development
  • intersensory processing
  • sensory processing disorders
  • sensory impairments
  • sensorimotor coordination
  • sensorimotor integration
  • embodied cognition in development

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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31 pages, 2262 KiB  
Article
Strike a Pose: Relationships Between Infants’ Motor Development and Visuospatial Representations of Bodies
by Emma L. Axelsson, Tayla Britton, Gurmeher K. Gulhati, Chloe Kelly, Helen Copeland, Luca McNamara, Hester Covell and Alyssa A. Quinn
Behav. Sci. 2025, 15(8), 1021; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081021 - 28 Jul 2025
Abstract
Infants discriminate faces early in the first year, but research on infants’ discrimination of bodies is plagued by mixed findings. Using a familiarisation novelty preference method, we investigated 7- and 9-month-old infants’ discrimination of body postures presented in upright and inverted orientations, and [...] Read more.
Infants discriminate faces early in the first year, but research on infants’ discrimination of bodies is plagued by mixed findings. Using a familiarisation novelty preference method, we investigated 7- and 9-month-old infants’ discrimination of body postures presented in upright and inverted orientations, and with and without heads, along with relationships with gross and fine motor development. In our initial studies, 7-month-old infants discriminated upright headless postures with forward-facing and about-facing images. Eye tracking revealed that infants looked at the bodies of the upright headless postures the longest and at the heads of upright whole figures for 60–70% of the time regardless of the presence of faces, suggesting that heads detract attention from bodies. In a more stringent test, with similarly complex limb positions between test items, infants could not discriminate postures. With longer trials, the 7-month-olds demonstrated a familiarity preference for the upright whole figures, and the 9-month-olds demonstrated a novelty preference, albeit with a less robust effect. Unlike previous studies, we found that better gross motor skills were related to the 7-month-olds’ better discrimination of upright headless postures compared to inverted postures. The 9-month-old infants’ lower gross and fine motor skills were associated with a stronger preference for inverted compared to upright whole figures. This is further evidence of a configural representation of bodies in infancy, but it is constrained by an upper bias (heads in upright figures, feet in inverted), the test item similarity, and the trial duration. The measure and type of motor development reveals differential relationships with infants’ representations of bodies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Early Sensorimotor Experiences in Cognitive Development)
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14 pages, 2919 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Potential Developmental Precursors to Executive Function in Young Children with Motor Delays: Exploratory Study
by Andrea B. Cunha, Iryna Babik, Regina T. Harbourne, Stacey C. Dusing, Lin-Ya Hsu, Natalie A. Koziol, Sarah Westcott-McCoy, Sandra L. Willett, James A. Bovaird and Michele A. Lobo
Behav. Sci. 2024, 14(12), 1201; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14121201 - 14 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1302
Abstract
This study aimed to explore whether early developmental abilities are related to future executive function (EF) in children with motor delays. Fourteen children with motor delays (Mean age = 10.76, SD = 2.55) were included from a larger study. Object interaction and [...] Read more.
This study aimed to explore whether early developmental abilities are related to future executive function (EF) in children with motor delays. Fourteen children with motor delays (Mean age = 10.76, SD = 2.55) were included from a larger study. Object interaction and developmental outcomes (Bayley-III) were evaluated at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months post-baseline. Bayley-III and EF assessments (Minnesota Executive Function Scale) were conducted at 36 months post-baseline. Children with high EF demonstrated advanced early bimanual, visual–bimanual, receptive language, expressive language, and fine motor skills compared to children with low EF. Significant positive correlations between later Bayley-III and EF scores were found for cognitive, expressive language, and fine motor scores. These preliminary results suggest that early developmental skills support the emergence of EF in children with motor delays. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Early Sensorimotor Experiences in Cognitive Development)
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Review

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25 pages, 412 KiB  
Review
The Relationship Between Motor Development and ADHD: A Critical Review and Future Directions
by Gabrielle A. Shimko and Karin H. James
Behav. Sci. 2025, 15(5), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15050576 - 24 Apr 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2131
Abstract
Despite the prevalence of motor difficulties in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) throughout development, it is neglected as a factor underlying the etiology or functional impairment. This paper reviews the behavioral and neurological evidence linking motor difficulties to ADHD, arguing that existing theories [...] Read more.
Despite the prevalence of motor difficulties in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) throughout development, it is neglected as a factor underlying the etiology or functional impairment. This paper reviews the behavioral and neurological evidence linking motor difficulties to ADHD, arguing that existing theories explaining this relationship are oversimplified. Instead, embodied theories of development offer a more comprehensive evaluation of the mechanistic relationship among the motor system, cognitive development, and subsequent functional impairment in ADHD throughout early development. The integration of these perspectives will ultimately inform our understanding of the etiology of ADHD and inspire novel approaches for identification and intervention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Early Sensorimotor Experiences in Cognitive Development)
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