Featured Article On a Major Theme:
Prenatal LearningClaira A Case Study in Prenatal Learning
William B. Sallenbach, Ph.D.
Discussion
What seems to emerge from this case study of Claira is that pre natal learning is more complex and involved than current research would indicate. Habituation is one technique used to study memory functions in prenates and early infants (Friedman, 1972; Cohen and Gelber, 1975; Fagan, 1984). Habituation methods demonstrate differential responses to both novel and familiarized stimuli as a means of ascertaining if the baby does remember a familiar stimulus (So phian, 1980). Another method is contingency reinforcement to elicit certain learning responses (Rovee-Collier, 1984). In both of these paradigms the stimulus is externally imposed. Both methods look for changes in specific rates (visual, heart, sucking, behavior, etc.).
Habituation and contingency reinforcement were evident in the study of Claira. She did learn to recognize and to respond to the [a] sound when reinforced with the penlight. She was able to respond to the social games by pushing back on the abdomen wall. The introduction of nouel stimuli were met with pauses or cessation which could have reflected confusion or surprise. All of these responses are consistent with a habit/procedural type of memory system. Indeed this is well within the Piagetian view that the earliest learning is primarily sensorimotor.
However, there are elements in this study which imply that prenatal learning is more than a conditioned response. One was the apparent progressive organization of movement patterns. In addition to changes in rates, we can also see changes in patterns of activity (Bower, 1989). As Bower has pointed out: "we should be looking for a change in pattern of activity, a change to a pattern that shows systematic increases in activity and systematic pauses in activity" (p. 58). The difference in changes may signal a shift from external to internal motivation regarding learning. At some primitive level, the unborn is drawn into relationship with his/her actions in the pursuit of "understanding."
Evident in the case study of Claira were systematic changes in activity and pauses. Claira refined her responses to auditory stimuli from a general rolling to the localization of the sound source. The same progression was observed in the visual games when Claira first responded with kicking movements and then by rolling toward the source and touching it with her hand. The pauses in response to the dissonance in the musical piece was met by a new pattern of activity. In each of these examples the stimuli was not changed, although there were changes in her patterns of activity.
The inviting question is whether there is also a non habit/non-procedural system of memory functioning at this early learning level. In his work on imitation with very young infants, Meltzoff (1990) has argued for an innate non-habit memory system, particularly as it involves imitation and representational thought. As Meltzoff points out: "There may never be a time that the human infant is confined to a purely habit/procedural mode. In a very real sense, there may be no such thing as an exclusively "sensorimotor period" in the normal human infant (p. 20)".
An interesting phenomenon in this study has been Claira's response to object constancy. Object permanence is not expected until much later, generally around six months of age. Contemporary research has shown that this skill is often preceded by the infant's memory and search for an object (Bower, 1971; Moore et al., 1978; Diamond, 1985; Wellman, 1985; Harris, 1987) even though there may be no awareness of the object's independent existence. Claira's localized movement to the bell and her following the light trajectory with her hand would seem to represent this type of behavior. The time lag between light flashes was 1.5 to 2 seconds in duration. Obviously there was enough memory for the object that Claira was also able to locate it. In a real sense, Claira was attempting to recreate the object through her own actions (Sophian, 1980).
A further indication of this was her puzzlement when the light was not used to reinforce vowel sounds in a novelty presentation of an activity. During the initial trials of this activity she would hear the [a] sound and see it reinforced with the flashlight. On selected occasions the light was absent which caused some consternation on Claira's part. Later she was able to adapt to the change by touching the abdomen even though the light was not flashed. This was not a consistent pattern, but its presence over several trials indicated her "awareness" of the association pattern, and its presence over several trials indicated her "awareness" of the association between touch and the [a] sound.
It would appear from the study that the prenate's perception of the world and ability to respond is a unified perception and not one governed by mere reflexive action. How then does the prenate perceive? Contemporary developmental research (Stern, 1985; Bower, 1989; Meltzoff, 1990; Sallenbach, 1993) sees the young infant as amodal in perception. This refers to the infant's ability to take in information from one sensory modality and transfer it to another sensory modality (Stern, 1985). Thus, the infant is able to "map" visual and auditory cues to his/her own felt response.
Bower (1989) sees the young infant as living in a perceptual world determined by "higher order variables". These variables are not tied to the particulars of any one sense but can be presented in two or more senses (p. 173). So strong is this process that when information is presented in a form common to two or more sense modalities, the information "will be registered as events in the psychological world of the newborn (p. 36)".
Meltzoff refers to this amodal style as cross-modal functioning in the neonate. Information is transferred from one sensory mode to another. It involves a complex mapping process where equivalences are matched between what is perceived and the body transformations needed to make a felt response to the perception (1990, p. 6). This model can be applied to the apparent imitative skills in very young infants (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977). Never having seen his/her face, (and for some the first time exposure to adult facial gestures), the young infant sees a stranger perform a tongue protrusion and is able to imitate it. In the Meltzoff's model, the infant takes in the visual information, feels the transformation in the body, and reproduces the action. Such representational transformations certainly infer a non-habit/non-procedural memory system as the transformations operate more from recall than from a contingency reinforcement.
It may very well be that Claira's movement patterns represent a cross-modality response to the learning activities. The Bonded Beginnings activities purposefully provided two or more sensory modalities as the delivery system. The stimuli were perceived and then transformed into tactile and motoric responses by Claira. At the limited level of investigation for this study, we can only report on her responses as tactile or motoric. Further research into auditory and visual transformations would be worth investigating.
Bower (1989) makes an observation relevant for this study. He feels that the muscles and joints can act as higher order variables in amodal perception. In other words, information taken in via one sense, say visual, can be fed into proprioceptive coordinates and shared with other modalities. This view is shared by Meltzoff (1985; 1990) in the idea of active intermodal mapping (AIM), where "neonates can, at some level of processing, apprehend the equivalence between body transformations they see and body transformations of their own that they "feel" themselves make. The adult's gesture would truly act as a model against which infants would compare their responses (1990, p. 6)."
Figure 4
Claira's Learning Domains and the Cross-Modal Mappings SuggestedLearning Domain Sensory Input Mapping Movement Coordinates Social auditory/tactile tactile wrist, elbow Language auditory/visual/ tactile tactile knee/hip/(some wrist) Visual visual/tactile tactile knee/(some hip?) Auditory visual/auditory tactile shoulder/spine/hip Music auditory tactile shoulder/spine/hip Claira's learning style may well reflect this complex transformation system. By way of illustration, Figure 4 outlines the cross-modality coordination with the proprioceptive coordinates during the learning activities. In no way should this "map" be construed as a generalization for all prenates. What it does suggest is that for Claira the proprioceptive coordination may have been an important ingredient in the integration of cross-modal functioning. One very quickly gets the "picture" that the body as a whole acts as an integrating force and maintains hierarchical dominance over individual sensory modalities.
It would appear that the prenate lives in a world of perceptual unity and is certainly not fragmented in perceiving the internal or extra-uterine worlds. Perhaps the body and its various components provide a causal connection for very early learning (Sallenbach, 1993). This connection has been referred to as somatic efficacy and is the basis for "soma-sensory" learning during the prenatal period (Sallenbach, 1992; Blum, 1993).
The importance of the body in prenatal learning should not be a surprise. The first trimester is dominated by the differentiation and specification of body systems, yet the fetus is engaged in meaningful and volitional movement patterns (Chamberlain, 1993). In its purest sense, the prenate represents the total integration of mind and body.
If indeed the prenate uses proprioceptive coordinates then an interesting question arises: Can the unborn child retain memory of episodic, or single occurrence events (Tulving, 1987)? If the answer is positive, then perhaps the proprioceptive coordinates and cross-modal functioning would serve as a non-habit memory system and one which might be able to access a specific personal experience.
Treatment around prenatal and birth trauma would suggest that this is true. Emerson's work (1989) in this area has been a landmark. Emerson strongly believes that trauma is often retained in the joints and deep tendon tissues of the infant. The body can easily reactivate the birth trauma "memory" through a birth-simulating massage technique. This clinical viewpoint would imply that the body, acting as a higher order variable, could maintain the traumatic memory in the joints and tissues which were directly impacted. Another point to consider is that birth represents movement in its most authentic form. When this movement pattern is impacted, the experience may reverberate both physically and emotionally throughout those areas where the inhibition originated.
For the portion of the curriculum which is being reported in this study there were no direct attempts to trace any rudimentary form of representational thought. Yet it seems that the presence of such forms would be a crucial feature in determining a non-habit memory system for the prenate. To assess accurately imitative behaviors certain criteria would have to be met (Meltzoff, 1990). The prenate would have to produce a behavior after a brief delay. Such an act would need to be initiated by the prenate. An imitative act would not involve previous motor practice. With this criteria, imitative skills are more closely aligned to cued-recall than habituation, contingency reinforcement, or novelty preference (ibid, p. 22).
Given that the prenate is in a "non-visual" and closed unit, it is very difficult to meet these criteria. There were times when Claira seemed to come close. One was her quick ability to respond to the social games. In one game, the father pushes down on the abdomen and identifies himself saying, "Hello, papa's here!" Accompanying each syllable is a push on the maternal abdomen. The movement was slow and deliberate so as to allow for any reciprocal response during the interaction. Within the first three trials, Claira was pushing back. The game was incorporated into the beginning of each session. This game was also done much earlier than the audited period for this study so that its presence at this time had all of the appearances of a contingency reinforcement. Yet within the first half hour after birth, Claira was able to imitate a tongue protrusion. It would seem the imitative process is at work for the late term prenate in anticipation of this newborn skill. This is certainly an area worthy of further research and refinement of methodology.
I have attempted to show that many movement responses infer a progression in their organization with a purposeful outcome. Such a progression indicates internal organization. If so, then there exists the strong possibility that the prenate is utilizing internal motivation in learning.
Many of the games involved contingency reinforcement. Familiarized responses by Claira entailed recognition and anticipation to the activities. Anticipation still falls within a contingency model as part of a procedural response. Anticipation can indicate internal motivation and representation and appears as mental regulation.
In the Piagetian framework, a regulation is part of the equilibration process necessary for the building of mental schemes. A regulation occurs when the reaction to an action is modified by the original action (Piaget, 1978). The regulation can be either a correction (negative feedback) or a reinforcement (positive feedback). The regulation emerges from some type of disturbance, either as resistance to an obstacle or as a "gap" in the mental schema to explain an event.
Both types of corrections seem to have been displayed by Claira in regards to following the light trajectory and in keeping rhythm with the musical beat. Since we are still investigating the existence of regulations in prenatal cognition, we will refer to her responses as regulatory formations--at least an elementary development in a compensatory direction.
It would appear that the regulatory formation is a step beyond a habitual condition. Anticipatory reactions do not constitute a correction per se (Sallenbach, 1993). A regulation is not apparent when: 1) there is a repetition of an action with no modification; 2) when the disturbance leads to the cessation of an action, or 3) when the subject engages in an activity in another direction (Piaget, 1978, p. 19).
As Claira responded to following and touching the light source in the trajectory game, she was creating a function which moved retroactively, moving from the results to the starting point. In regards to reestablishing a synchronized beat with the musical arrangement, Claira was creating a proactive formulation leading to new corrections. In each event, the response was greater than a habitual response based on simple recognition or anticipation. Anticipation may be the leading step towards a regulatory formation and the development of mental schemes, but unless the above conditions are met it will remain at a procedural level.
This paper has been centered on the learning strategies for "Claira" although the bonding process was the main purpose of the curriculum used. Some words about that are appropriate here.
The success of the activities for the first level, "Bonding through Feelings" demonstrated the emotional responsiveness of Claira to the mother and family. Notice the important role played by movement in the bonding process as well as in the learning activities. Some of the responses reported in this paper reflected emotional states and resolutions to emotions. Movement also filled the role of communication and increased the bonding relationship between Claira and her parents.
These patterns imply that the prenate may be demonstrating an elementary sense of self. Clinicians tend to see the unborn child's identity as totally contained within the mother's identity. The movement patterns and their varied usages could indicate that there is truly a primal awareness of separation.
Rather than seeing the unborn's identity as totally contained in the mother's, we feel that the information in this study suggests that there is a mutual inclusiveness between child and parent. The experiences of the mother can be contained within the emotional life of the unborn when the fetus is capable of maintaining an elementary sense of separation. If boundaries are obscure, then there is the possibility that the unborn's needs will become fused with the mother's needs. When the bonding process includes appropriate boundaries and a healthy interactive model, then the unborn derives security and self-awareness from the containment within the mother. The sense of self is part of a grander process of specification within the prenatal period.
What constitutes the learning process during the prenatal period? We believe that the information in this study demonstrates that the prenate, like the neonate, is moving from a process of generalization and abstraction about experiences to specificity and discrimination. This is also the same process described by Bower (1989) in examining the learning styles of very young infants. This process is unified, often governed by higher order variables in an amodal perceptual field. The body in its joints and deep tissues is very instrumental in facilitating this learning process. There should be little doubt that the unborn child is a sentient being, on whatever level, capable of participating in the life that surrounds him or her.
Implications
The most obvious implication from this and other studies is that more research is required in order to understand pre natal learning and bonding processes. At best, we have only begun to appreciate the learning modalities active during the prenatal period. Rather than proceeding along theoretical constructs using antiquated research models, we need to be attuned to what the prenate is capable of experiencing. Such an approach needs to avoid both the mystification of the prenate and simplistic assumptions
The information from this study suggests that we look at the prenatal paradigm as etiological and epigenetic in regards to later infant cognitive development. For instance, does object permanence have a prenatal correlate in regards to object awareness? Claira was able to localize to a specific place during certain activities. Both object awareness and spatial awareness infer relevant memory functions toward an object knowledge. The information in this study suggests that there is a continuous line of development to object permanence from the prenatal period. Further exploration of memory functions would be very important in clarifying this aspect.
Means/ends behavior may also have an etiological aspect during the prenatal period. The prenate is very familiar with the use of his/her uterine "toys"; namely the fluid, the placenta, and the umbilical cord. There is ample documentation that the unborn are occupied with them. This study suggests there is an elementary awareness of action which enables participation in games.
Spatiality is another developmental area which is worthy of further investigation during the prenatal period. Information from this study indicates under certain circumstances that visual and auditory perception may be distal as well as proximal. As such, Claira was able to locate objects and movement in space.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect would be the presence, or predisposition, of early imitative skills during the late prenatal period. This study did not focus specifically on this skill, but some of the responses point to this possibility. This is especially plausible when one considers that imitative abilities have been discovered in premature and full term babies only minutes old. Claira herself imitated facial gestures when thirty minutes old
Perhaps paramount for further research (and an item only slightly discussed in this paper) is the connection between prenatal cognitive and social development. For Claira, learning was within a social and familial context. Bonding is a term which describes the intensity and degree of relations within an interactive model. Research which attempts to look at prenatal imitative skills could provide us with a better understanding of the close relation between social and cognitive development. Within this exchange is the young child's acute interest in adults.
We hope this case study of Claira provides a broader understanding of the complexity and depth that characterize prenatal learning. It is important that we not limit our understanding by use of limited research methodologies. Usually, prenatal studies focus on neurological functions, contingency behaviors, and developmental outcomes. Such descriptions are not the best paradigms for defining learning and psychological processes. Perhaps by understanding better the origins of our interests, we can look differently at our paradigms for learning.
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Correspondence may be addressed to the author at P. O. Box 8949 Ketchikan, AK 99901.