Early Development of Body Representations

This unique book presents current research on how young children perceive and think about their own and others' bodies.

Virginia Slaughter (Edited by), Celia A. Brownell (Edited by)

9781107686496, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2013

300 pages, 27 b/w illus. 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'I would wholeheartedly recommend Early Development of Body Representations to anyone interested in the specific problem of early body representation as well as in the larger problem of the development of body- and self-experience.' Jack Demick, PsycCRITIQUES

Because we engage with the world and each other through our bodies and bodily movements, being able to represent one's own and others' bodies is fundamental to human perception, cognition and behaviour. This edited book brings together, for the first time, developmental perspectives on the growth of body knowledge in infancy and early childhood and how it intersects with other aspects of perception and cognition. The book is organised into three sections addressing the bodily self, the bodies of others and integrating self and other. Topics include perception and representation of the human form, infant imitation, understanding biological motion, self-representation, intention understanding, action production and perception and children's human figure drawings. Each section includes chapters from leading international scholars drawn together by an expert commentary that highlights open questions and directions for future research.

Part I. The Bodily Self: 1. Primordial sense of embodied self-unity Philippe Rochat
2. The development of body representations: the integration of visual-proprioceptive information Stephanie Zwicker, Chris Moore and Daniel Povinelli
3. Emergence and early development of the body image Celia A. Brownell, Margarita Svetlova and Sara R. Nichols
4. Gulliver, Goliath and Goldilocks: young children and scale errors Judy S. DeLoache and David H. Uttal
Commentary Manos Tskaris
Part II. The Bodies of Others: 5. Developing expertise in human body perception Virginia Slaughter, Michelle Heron-Delaney and Tamara Christie
6. Children's representations of the human figure in their drawings Maureen Cox
7. Understanding of human motion, form and levels of meaning: evidence from the perception of human point-light displays by infants and people with autism Derek G. Moore
8. How infants detect information in biological motion Vincent Reid
9. The integration of body representations and other inferential systems in infancy Kirsten O'Hearn and Susan C. Johnson
Commentary Kazuo Hiraki
Part III. Bodily Correspondences: Integrating Self and Other: 10. Prepared to learn about human bodies' goals and intentions Teodora Gliga and Victoria Southgate
11. Imitation in infancy and the acquisition of body knowledge Susan Jones and Hanako Yoshida
12. Infants' perception and production of crawling and walking movements Petra Hauf and Michelle Power
13. The body in action: the impact of self-produced action on infants' action perception and understanding Jessica A. Sommerville, Emily J. Blumenthal, Kaitlin Venema and Kara D. Sage
Commentary Moritz M. Daum and Wolfgang Prinz.

Subject Areas: Neurosciences [PSAN], Clinical psychology [MMJ], Psychiatry [MMH], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Philosophy [HP]