Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) member Justine Hoch, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Psychology and Human Development. Dr. Hoch studies infants’ sense of exploration through the lens of motor development because new motor skills offer infants new opportunities to interact with their environment and new ways to learn. Because crawling and walking provide infants with unprecedented access to the larger world, she uses locomotion as a model system to study the development of exploratory behavior. Dr. Hoch examines real-time and developmental processes using detailed behavioral video coding, head-mounted eye tracking, video-based motion tracking, gait analysis, computational modeling, and robotic simulation.
In the interview below, Hoch shares how she became interested in disabilities research, describes her current research projects, and highlights how becoming a member of the VKC enhances the work she does.
Tell me about your attraction to developmental disabilities research. Do you have a personal connection to disability?
My attraction to this field stems from the fact that many developmental disorders manifest very early — often as subtle differences in exploration, sensorimotor integration, or motor coordination. By establishing normative patterns of infant locomotion, object engagement, and caregiver-child interactions, my research aims to provide essential benchmarks for identifying atypical developmental trajectories. Although my primary connection to developmental disabilities research is professional, it is rooted in a deep commitment to generating translational insights that inform early identification and intervention.
What are your current research interests and what problem(s) or challenge(s) does it address?
My research investigates how infants learn through exploration. Infants don’t just wait for information to come to them; instead, they generate it by exploring people, places, and their own growing physical abilities. I study exploration through the lens of motor development, using locomotion — specifically crawling and walking — as a model system. These milestones provide infants with unprecedented access to the larger world and create new opportunities for interaction and learning.
The primary challenge my research addresses is understanding exactly how this exploration facilitates learning and development over time. Because behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum, I approach this question from an ecological perspective. This means I treat the infant as an embodied individual who is constantly influenced by both their physical surroundings and their social environment. By characterizing the factors that shape exploration in real time, my lab aims to uncover how these early motor behaviors build the foundation for lifelong learning and adaptation.
Do you have a story about a research participant or a breakthrough that illustrates the impact of your work?
A major breakthrough in my research came from an unexpected comparison: infants and soccer-playing robots. Historically, the “messiness” of infant steps — the frequent falls, wobbles, and inconsistent gait — was viewed as a lack of motor control or a series of errors to be corrected. However, by using robotic simulations we discovered that all this messiness may actually be beneficial for infant learning.
We trained simulated robots to walk and then play soccer using real infant walking paths. Some of the infant walking paths were highly variable whereas others were less variable. When teams of robots played off in a giant robot soccer competition, we found that teams trained with the most variable infant paths walked better and won more games. In other words, variability wins! We think that the immense variability in infants’ movements allows them to discover how their own bodies and skills function across different contexts. Our findings suggest that instead of viewing high variability as a deficit to be minimized, we can recognize it as a functional hallmark of healthy, adaptive exploration. This shift in thinking informs our goal of generating translational insights: rather than just training an infant to move in a particular way, we should focus on scaffolding their ability to explore a range of environments and contexts.
What are your reasons for becoming a VKC Member? How does the VKC enhance the work you do?
I became a VKC member because my research program is deeply aligned with the Center’s mission to improve the lives of individuals with disorders of thinking, learning, and perception. The VKC provides a vital bridge between basic developmental research and clinical application. It enhances my work by providing a collaborative framework where our findings can be translated into real-world benchmarks for identifying atypical developmental trajectories. It’s an honor to be a member of a community that is dedicated to transforming scientific discovery into meaningful improvements in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities.
