Sequential learning of emotional faces is statistical at 12 months of age
AbstractInfants are capable of extracting statistical regularities from continuous streams of elements, which helps them structuring their surrounding environment. The current study examines 12-month-olds' capacity to extract statistical information from a sequence of emotional faces. Using a familiarization procedure, infants were presented with videos of two actresses expressing the same facial emotion, and subsequently turning toward or away from each other. Videos displayed different emotions (i.e., anger, happiness, fear, sadness, surprise, amusement, disgust, and exasperation) and were organized sequentially, so that...
Source: Infancy - March 4, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Julia Mermier,
Ermanno Quadrelli,
Chiara Turati,
Hermann Bulf Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: Infancy)
Source: Infancy - February 18, 2022 Category: Child Development Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
Testing predictions of a neural process model of visual attention in infancy across competitive and non ‐competitive contexts
AbstractA key question in early development is how changes in neural systems give rise to changes in infants' behavior. We examine this question by testing predictions of a dynamic field (DF) model of infant spatial attention. We tested 5-, 7-, and 10-month-old infants in the Infant Orienting With Attention (IOWA) task containing the original non-competitive cue conditions (when a central stimulus disappeared before a cue onset) and new competitive cue conditions (when a central stimulus remained visible throughout the trial). This allowed testing of five model predictions: (1) that orienting accuracy would be higher and (...
Source: Infancy - February 18, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: John P. Spencer,
Shannon Ross ‐Sheehy,
Bret Eschman Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
How do maternal emotional regulation difficulties modulate the mother –infant behavioral synchrony?
This study emphasizes the central role of maternal emotion regulation difficulties in the establishment of maladaptive synchrony and in the adjustments of maternal physical contacts with infants. (Source: Infancy)
Source: Infancy - February 16, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Karyn Doba,
Laurent Pezard,
Jean ‐Louis Nandrino Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
The mediating role of parental embodied mentalizing in the longitudinal association between prenatal spousal support and toddler emotion recognition
AbstractEmotion recognition is an important developmental achievement in early childhood. Grounded in theoretical concepts of family systems theory and the spillover effect, the goal of the current study was to examine whether prenatal spousal support predicts toddler emotion recognition at 24 months, and whether this association is mediated by parental embodied mentalizing (PEM) at 6 months. PEM refers to the parent's capacity to understand the infant's mental states from his or her whole-body kinesthetic expressions and adjust their own kinesthetic patterns accordingly. One hundred a nd five families expecting their f...
Source: Infancy - February 12, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Einav Afek,
Rachel Lev ‐Wiesel,
Dita Federman,
Dana Shai Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Not all babies are in the same boat: Exploring the effects of socioeconomic status, parental attitudes, and activities during the 2020 COVID ‐19 pandemic on early Executive Functions
AbstractEarly executive functions (EFs) lay the foundations for academic and social outcomes. In this parent-report study of 575 UK-based 8- to 36 month olds (218 followed longitudinally), we investigate how variation in the home environment before and during the 2020 pandemic relates to infants’ emerging EFs. Parent-infant enriching activities were positively associated with infant Cognitive Executive Function (CEF) (encompassing inhibito ry control, working memory, cognitive flexibility). During the most-restrictive UK lockdown—but not subsequently—socioeconomic status (SES) was positively associated with levels ...
Source: Infancy - February 1, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Alexandra Hendry,
Shannon P. Gibson,
Catherine Davies,
Teodora Gliga,
Michelle McGillion,
Nayeli Gonzalez ‐Gomez Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Discovering category boundaries: The role of comparison in infants ’ novel category learning
AbstractA key question in categorization is how infants extract regularities from the exemplars they encounter. Detecting similarities and dissimilarities across items is vital in order to determine category-relevant features. Previous research found evidence that infants acquire a single category more easily with paired presentations in comparison with single presentations (Oakes& Ribar, 2005,Infancy, 7, 85; Oakes& Kovack-Lesh, 2007,Cogni ție, Creier, Comportament / Cognition, Brain, Behavior, XI, 661). Here, we focus on infants ’ acquisition of a categorycontrast, that is, when they are exposed to two categories. In a...
Source: Infancy - January 31, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Jelena Su čević,
Nadja Althaus,
Kim Plunkett Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Infants' visual exploration strategies for adult and child faces
AbstractBy the end of the first year of life, infants' discrimination abilities tune to frequently experienced face groups. Little is known about the exploration strategies adopted to efficiently discriminate frequent, familiar face types. The present eye-tracking study examined the distribution of visual fixations produced by 10-month-old and 4-month-old singletons while learning adult (i.e., familiar) and child (i.e., unfamiliar) White faces. Infants were tested in an infant-controlled visual habituation task, in which post-habituation preference measured successful discrimination. Results confirmed earlier evidence that...
Source: Infancy - January 28, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Stefania Conte,
Elisa Baccolo,
Hermann Bulf,
Valentina Proietti,
Viola Macchi Cassia Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Visual perception grounding of social cognition in preverbal infants
AbstractSocial life is inherently relational, entailing the ability to recognize and monitor social entities and the relationships between them. Very young infants privilege socially relevant entities in the visual world, such as faces and bodies. Here, we show that six-month-old infants also discriminate between configurations of multiple human bodies, based on the internal visuo-spatial relations between bodies, which could cue —or not—social interaction. We measured the differential looking times for two images, each featuring two identical bodies, but in different spatial relations. Infants discriminated between fa...
Source: Infancy - January 22, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Nicolas Goupil,
Liuba Papeo,
Jean ‐Rémy Hochmann Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Role of speaker gender in toddler lexical processing
AbstractAdults and children utilize social category information during incremental language processing. Gender is a particularly salient social category that is often marked both in speakers' voices and the visual world. However, it is unknown whether toddlers exploit gender cues to draw connections between language and other aspects of their environment. The current study investigates whether toddlers use gender cues available in voices and objects during real-time language processing. 22- to 24-month-old toddlers (N = 38) were tested in a looking-while-listening paradigm. On each trial, toddlers viewed two highly famil...
Source: Infancy - January 22, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Desia Bacon,
Jenny Saffran Tags: BRIEF REPORT Source Type: research
Habla conmigo, daddy! Fathers ’ language input in North American bilingual Latinx families
This study examines the language environments of bilingually raised Latinx infants (n = 37) in mother–father families of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, with a focus on paternal parentese, a speaking style distinguished by higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Two daylong audio recordings were collected on weekends, when both parents were at home. Paternal, maternal, and infant speech variables were quantified through automatic and manual analyses. Most infants experienced Spanish and English within child-directed speech, and language mixing was common in mothers and fathers. Adjusting for demograp...
Source: Infancy - January 20, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Naja Ferjan Ram írez,
Daniel S. Hippe,
Lili Correa,
Josephine Andert,
Melissa Baralt Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Atypical ERP responses to audiovisual speech integration and sensory responsiveness in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder
In this study, we investigated whether ERP measures of AV integration differentiate HR infants from low-risk (LR) infants and whether early AV integration abilities are associated with clinical measures of sensory responsiveness. At age 12 months, AV integration in HR (n = 21) and LR infants (n = 19) was characterized in a novel ERP paradigm measuring the McGurk effect, and clinical measures of sensory responsiveness were evaluated. Different brain responses over the left temporal area emerge between HR and LR infants, specifically when AV stimuli cannot be integrated into a fusible per cept. Furthermore, ERP respons...
Source: Infancy - January 17, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Valentina Riva,
Elena Maria Riboldi,
Chiara Dondena,
Caterina Piazza,
Massimo Molteni,
Chiara Cantiani Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Cortical auditory evoked potentials in 1 ‐month‐old infants predict language outcomes at 12 months
This study aimed to identify CAEP components to two auditory stimulus intensities in 1-month-old infants and to understand how these are associated with social interactive and self-regulatory behaviors. In addition, it examined whether CAEPs predicted developmental outcomes when infants were assessed at 12 months of age. At 1 month, P2 and N2 components were present for both auditory stimulus intensities, with an increased P2 amplitude being observed for the higher -intensity stimuli. We also observed that an increased P2 amplitude in the lower intensity predicted receptive and expressive language competencies at 12 mon...
Source: Infancy - January 17, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Sara Cruz,
Alberto Crego,
Carla Moreira,
Eug énia Ribeiro,
Óscar Gonçalves,
Rita Ramos,
Adriana Sampaio Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Talker variability shapes early word representations in English ‐learning 8‐month‐olds
AbstractInfants must form appropriately specific representations of how words sound and what they mean. Previous research suggests that while 8-month-olds are learning words, they struggle with recognizing different-sounding instances of words (e.g., from new talkers) and with rejecting incorrect pronunciations. We asked how adding talker variability during learning may change infants ’ ability to learn and recognize words. Monolingual English-learning 7- to 9-month-olds heard a single novel word paired with an object in either a “no variability,” “within-talker variability,” or “between-talker variability” h...
Source: Infancy - January 15, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Federica Bulgarelli,
Elika Bergelson Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Talker variability shapes early word representations in English ?learning 8?month?olds
AbstractInfants must form appropriately specific representations of how words sound and what they mean. Previous research suggests that while 8-month-olds are learning words, they struggle with recognizing different-sounding instances of words (e.g., from new talkers) and with rejecting incorrect pronunciations. We asked how adding talker variability during learning may change infants ability to learn and recognize words. Monolingual English-learning 7- to 9-month-olds heard a single novel word paired with an object in either a no variability, within-talker variability, or between-talker variability habituation. We...
Source: Infancy - January 11, 2022 Category: Child Development Authors: Federica Bulgarelli,
Elika Bergelson Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
