Motor Learning Terms of the Day

For many decades, the impact of artificial nipple use on feeding skills in breastfeeding infants has been measured in studies on breastfeeding duration, measuring rates of exclusive breastfeeding duration and/or the duration of the entire breastfeeding course (see Appendices 1 - 6 in the Resources section of this website).  Skill acquisition, skill decay, and re-acquisition of infant breastfeeding skills can also be studied and measured in real time, i.e., in milliseconds (ms), utilizing the parameters below during direct observation of infant feeding behaviors.  

Similarly, in bottle-feeding populations - regardless of whether the milk is expressed mother's milk, human donor milk, or artificial infant milk - the acquisition of bottle-feeding skills, skill decay, and the re-acquisition of infant bottle-feeding skills can also be measured in regard to task-switching between different styles of artificial nipples that vary in diameter, length, texture, shape/contour, scent, and taste.  Task-switching between similar yet different pacifiers/dummies can be studied as well.  Task-switching is much studied in the cognitive sciences, including the subsequent and frequent switch costs of decreased speed and accuracy for the task. 

Reaction time (RT):   the interval between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of a response, measured in milliseconds (ms).  After a newborn’s learning experience with an artificial nipple and subsequent return to the maternal breast, a delay in the infant's reaction time to the maternal stimuli (nipple-areolar complex) is often observed.   

Movement time (MT): the interval of time between the initiation of a movement and its completion, also measured in milliseconds.  Following an infant's learning experience with an artificial nipple and subsequent return to the maternal breast, the infant’s movement time for achievement of the oral grasp and/or effective suckling at the breast is often prolonged.  

Response time:  the interval from the presentation of a stimulus to the completion of a movement; the sum of reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT).  

The equation:  RT + MT = response time.  

Inhibition of return (IOR): the phenomenon of the delay or impairment in responding
to a previously cued (orienting) stimulus (by 500 - 3000 milliseconds [ms] or more).
*1 second (s) = 1000 milliseconds (ms)

The above learning terms can also be utilized to further define infant feeding confusions and preferences, expanding on the first formal definition of nipple confusion provided by Neifert, Lawrence, and Seacat (1995).  

Quote of the Day

Humans come with preadapted motor behaviors that are built into the central nervous system. But even reflexes, such as the sucking and grasp reflexes, are quickly modified by the infant’s experiences in the world. For the species’ survival, these early experiences open a dialogue between the newborn and its new stimulus-rich world. This dialogue provides a cycle of perception and action with consequences.  

                    - Kinesiologist Jane E. Clark  https://sph.umd.edu/people/jane-e-clark

On the Beauty of Language in Science

   After years of observing infant breastfeeding difficulties that often follow the use of an artificial nipple (particularly during early learning but not only during early learning), I opened a kinesiology text and beheld an embarrassment of riches.  That text was Richard Schmidt and Timothy Lee's Motor Control and Learning:  A Behavioral Emphasis, and of all the new and glorious terms contained within that text and others, the term skill decay provided the greatest thrill of discovery from my perspective as a specialist in infant feeding, working then in a non-Baby Friendly inpatient facility [for information on the World Health Organization's Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, see http://www.babyfriendlyusa.org].   

   How beautiful is this language of motor learning and motor control?  I find the term guidance particularly beautiful, given that so much of our workday is spent providing requested assistance to the mother in the form of verbal and manual guidance, although we provide far greater manual guidance to the preverbal/prelinguistic infant, often in tandem with guidance given to the mother. But let me reorganize the order of things:  To learn this work, the clinician does not begin her/his career in this field with expertise, i.e., in possession of skilled movement.  We can only begin as a novice, utilizing the didactic portion of our education as well as the guidance shared by a preceptor.  In sensory-perceptual-motor learning (or more simply, motor learning), we learn by doing.  Rehearsals are most effective when practice sessions are specific to the task, and increasing skill is accompanied by a certain happiness.