Voir, atteindre, toucher : les relations entre la vision et le toucher chez le bébé

Vision, prehension, touch the relations between vision and touch in infancy

• Auteur / Autrice : Arlette Streri
• Direction : Eliane Vurpillot
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Psychologie
• Date : Soutenance en 1989
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 5

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Vision

Toucher

Perception visuelle

Chez le nourrisson

Perception

Résumé

On s'interroge sur le debut des relations entre deux systemes perceptifs, les systemes visuel et tactile, et sur le developpement de ces relations au cours de la premiere annee apres la naissance du bebe. La question de l'unite des systemes a la naissance longtemps soulevee a recu recemment des elements de reponse dans deux domaines d'etude : le geste de prehension d'un objet visuel et la relation intermodale. Ces deux domaines ont ete etudies jusqu'ici separement. La prehension est une relation entre le systeme sensoriel visuel et le systeme moteur tactile, tandis que le transfert intermodal est une relation entre deux systemes sensoriels. La prise en consideration de ces multiples aspects de la relation etait necessaire afin d'avoir une vue plus complete de la nature des liens qui organisent nos conduites des la naissance. Une analyse approfondie de la litterature sur la prehension et le transfert ainsi que nos propres travaux sur le transfert intermodal permettent de conclure a l'existence d'une unite precoce des systemes. Cette unite est fragile. Le geste de prehension est soumis a des restructurations dues au developpement de la motricite du bebe. La relation n'est pas reversible dans le transfert a tous les ages, imputable en grande partie aux vitesses de developpement non synchrones des deux systemes. On pose a partir des niveaux d'organisation perceptive et motrice ainsi analyses le probleme du type de connaissance que le nouveau-ne puis le bebe elaborent au cours de la premiere annee de la vie.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the origins of the relations between perceptual systems such as touch and vision, and the development of their relations during the first year of life. The problem of the unity of senses at birth is old. This question has been answered to in two different ways : prehension of visual object and intermodal transfer or multimodal exploration. Prehension is a relation between the visual sense and the tactual motor system whereas intermodal transfer and multimodal exploration is a relation between senses. The two fields were studied separately until now and it became necessary to bring them together in order to have a complete view of the different relations between perceptual systems which organize our behaviour from birth. A complete analysis of the litterature in the two fields and our own experiments on intermodal transfer may suggest an early unity of the systems at birth. However, this unity is fragile in prehension and a reorganization of behaviour is observed which may be attributed to the development of the tactual motor system. The unity is established between sensory modes but the relations between vision and touch are not reversible at each age. This lack of reversibility may be attributed to the different speeds of the development of the two systems. We ask the question of the stages of cognition that the infants construct in the first year from perceptual and motor organization.