A Bayesian meta ‐analysis of infants’ ability to perceive audio–visual congruence for speech
AbstractThis paper quantifies the extent to which infants can perceive audio –visual congruence for speech information and assesses whether this ability changes with native language exposure over time. A hierarchical Bayesian robust regression model of 92 separate effect sizes extracted from 24 studies indicates a moderate effect size in a positive direction (0.35, CI [0 .21: 0.50]). This result suggests that infants possess a robust ability to detect audio–visual congruence for speech. Moderator analyses, moreover, suggest that infants’ audio–visual matching ability for speech emerges at an early point in the pr...
Source: Infancy - September 20, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Christopher Martin Mikkelsen Cox,
Tamar Keren ‐Portnoy,
Andreas Roepstorff,
Riccardo Fusaroli Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Online measures of looking and learning in infancy
AbstractInfants in laboratory settings look longer at events that violate their expectations, learn better about objects that behave unexpectedly, and match utterances to the objects that likely elicited them. The paradigms revealing these behaviors have become cornerstones of research on preverbal cognition. However, little is known about whether these canonical behaviors are observed outside laboratory settings. Here, we describe a series of online protocols that replicate classic laboratory findings, detailing our methods throughout. In Experiment 1a, 15-month-old infants (N = 24) looked longer at an online support ev...
Source: Infancy - September 15, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Alexis S. Smith ‐Flores,
Jasmin Perez,
Michelle H. Zhang,
Lisa Feigenson Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
When dogs meow: An electrophysiological study of lexical –semantic processing in toddlers
AbstractThe goal of this study was to investigate lexical –semantic processing at an early phase of language development. Adults often communicate with children usinginfant-directed speech that typically involves lexical and syntactic modifications such asonomatopoeias (Soderstrom, 2007). Here, we asked how and when children start to show an advantage for processing conventional linguistic forms, such as common nouns, and consequently decreasing sensitivity to onomatopoeias. We recorded event-related brain potentials in children of two age groups (16 –21 months and 24–31 months) and in an adult control group during...
Source: Infancy - September 10, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Mirella Manfredi,
Corina Celebic,
Moritz M. Daum Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Fine ‐tuning language discrimination: Bilingual and monolingual infants’ detection of language switching
AbstractThe ability to differentiate between two languages sets the stage for bilingual learning. Infants can discriminate languages when hearing long passages, but language switches often occur on short time scales with few cues to language identity. As bilingual infants begin learning sequences of sounds and words, how do they detect the dynamics of two languages? In two studies using the head-turn preference procedure, we investigated whether infants (n = 44) can discriminate languages at the level of individual words. In Study 1, bilingual and monolingual 8- to 12-month-olds were tested on their detection of single-w...
Source: Infancy - September 5, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Esther Schott,
Meghan Mastroberardino,
Eva Fourakis,
Casey Lew ‐Williams,
Krista Byers‐Heinlein Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Patterns of mutual exclusivity and retention: A study of monolingual and bilingual 2 ‐year‐olds
AbstractWhen children learn their native language, they tend to treat objects as if they only have one label —a principle known as mutual exclusivity. However, bilingual children are faced with a different cognitive challenge—they need to learn to associate two labels with one object. In the present study, we compared bilingual and monolingual 24-month-olds’ performance on a challenging and semi-natu ralistic forced-choice referent selection task and retention test. Overall, both language groups performed similarly on referent selection but differed on retention. Specifically, while monolingual infants showed some re...
Source: Infancy - August 30, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Joscelin Rocha ‐Hidalgo,
Mary Feller,
Olivia A. Blanchfield,
Sarah C. Kucker,
Rachel F. Barr Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Linguistic and developmental influences on superordinate facial configuration categorization in infancy
AbstractHumans perceive emotions in terms of categories, such as “happiness,” “sadness,” and “anger.” To learn these complex conceptual emotion categories, humans must first be able to perceive regularities in expressive behaviors (e.g., facial configurations) across individuals. Recent research suggests that infants spontaneously form “basic-level” categories of facial configurations (e.g., happy vs. fear), but not “superordinate” categories of facial configurations (e.g., positive vs. negative). The current studies further explore how infant age and language impact superordinate categorization of faci...
Source: Infancy - August 22, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Ashley L. Ruba,
Andrew N. Meltzoff,
Betty M. Repacholi Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Development and validation of the Early Executive Functions Questionnaire: A carer ‐administered measure of Executive Functions suitable for 9‐ to 30‐month‐olds
AbstractExecutive functions (EFs) enable us to control our attention and behavior in order to set and work toward goals. Strong EF skills are linked to better academic performance, and greater health, wealth, and happiness in later life. Research into EF development has been hampered by a lack of scalable measures suitable for infancy through to toddlerhood. The 31-item Early Executive Functions Questionnaire (EEFQ) complements temperament measures by targeting cognitive and regulatory capabilities. Exploratory Factor Analysis (n = 486 8- to 30-month-olds) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 317 9- to 30-month-olds) ...
Source: Infancy - August 21, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Alexandra Hendry,
Karla Holmboe Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Maternal prenatal mood problems and lower maternal emotional availability associated with lower quality of child's emotional availability and higher negative affect during still ‐face procedure
AbstractOur aim was to study the effects of maternal perinatal mood and maternal emotional availability on child emotional availability and negative affect during the still-face procedure (SFP). The sample included 214 women who participated in a prospective study. We assessed maternal mood problems using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and PRAQ questionnaire during pregnancy and using STAI and EPDS questionnaires during pregnancy and at 6 months after delivery. Maternal and child emotional availability were studied using the Emotional Availability Scales during the SFP at 6 months. We observed and qua...
Source: Infancy - August 9, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Riikka Korja,
Catherine McMahon Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: Infancy)
Source: Infancy - August 6, 2021 Category: Child Development Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
Clinically depressed and typically developing mother –infant dyads: Domain base rates and correspondences, relationship contingencies and attunement
This study aimed to illuminate the role of maternal clinical depression in mother –infant interaction by turning a microanalytic lens on four substantive relationship issues: base rates, correspondences, contingencies, and attunement. Several maternal parenting practices (aggregated into social, didactic, and language domains) and several infant behaviors (aggregated into socia l, exploration, and non-distress vocalization domains) were microcoded to 0.10 s from naturalistic hour long interactions of clinically depressed mothers (n = 60) and matched non-depressed controls (n = 60) with their 5-month-olds. Clinically dep...
Source: Infancy - August 3, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Marc H. Bornstein,
Nanmathi Manian,
Lauren M. Henry Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Boosting the input: 9 ‐month‐olds’ sensitivity to low‐frequency phonotactic patterns in novel wordforms
AbstractTo learn their first words, infants must attend to a variety of cues that signal word boundaries. One such cue infants might use is the language-specific phonotactics to track legal combinations and positions of segments within a word. Studies have demonstrated that, when tested across statistically high and low phonotactics, infants repeatedly reject the low-frequency wordforms. We explore whether the capacity to access low-frequency phonotactic combinations is available at 9 months when pre-exposed to wordforms containing statistically low combinations of segments. Using a modified head-turn procedure, one grou...
Source: Infancy - July 24, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Stephanie L. Archer,
Natalia Czarnecki,
Suzanne Curtin Tags: BRIEF REPORT Source Type: research
Symbolic play provides a fertile context for language development
In this study, we test the hypothesis that symbolic play represents a fertile context for language acquisition because its inherent ambiguity elicits communicative behaviors that positively influence development. Infant –caregiver dyads (N = 54) participated in two 20-minute play sessions six months apart (Time 1 = 18 months, Time 2 = 24 months). During each session, the dyads played with two sets of toys that elicited either symbolic or functional play. The sessions were transcribed and coded for several features of dyadic inter action and language; infants’ linguistic proficiency was measured via parental report....
Source: Infancy - July 23, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: No ëlie Creaghe,
Sara Quinn,
Evan Kidd Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Assessing behavior in children aged 12 –24 months using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
AbstractBehavioral and emotional problems in infants and toddlers are common, often persist and put children at risk of later mental health problems. Reliable, efficient, and sensitive tools are needed to identify young children who may benefit from further assessment and support. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), offers a brief, convenient means of screening for early problems, however, it lacks psychometric validation in infants. The aim of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the SDQ in children aged 12 –24 months. Ninety-three participants, with children aged 12–24 months, co...
Source: Infancy - July 21, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Jinal Patel,
Ria Smith,
Christine O ’Farrelly,
Jane Iles,
Camilla Rosan,
Rachael Ryan,
Paul Ramchandani Tags: BRIEF REPORT Source Type: research
Infants scan static and dynamic facial expressions differently
AbstractDespite being inherently dynamic phenomena, much of our understanding of how infants attend and scan facial expressions is based on static face stimuli. Here we investigate how six-, nine-, and twelve-month infants allocate their visual attention toward dynamic-interactive videos of the six basic emotional expressions, and compare their responses with static images of the same stimuli. We find infants show clear differences in how they attend and scan dynamic and static expressions, looking longer toward the dynamic-face and lower-face regions. Infants across all age groups show differential interest in expressions...
Source: Infancy - July 20, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Jonathan E. Prunty,
Jolie R. Keemink,
David J. Kelly Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Infants born preterm and infants born full ‐term generate more selective leg joint movement during the scaffolded mobile task
AbstractInfants born very preterm (PT), prior to 32 weeks gestation, are at increased risk of developing cerebral palsy. Children with spastic cerebral palsy have impaired selective leg joint movement, which contributes to lifelong walking limitations. We investigated whether infants born PT generated more selective hip–knee joint movement (e.g., hip flexes as knee extends) while participating in a scaffolded mobile task. Infants born PT and infants born full-term (FT) at 4 months corrected age participated in a scaffolded mobile task for 2–3 consecutive days. The scaffolded mobile task required infants to raise the...
Source: Infancy - July 20, 2021 Category: Child Development Authors: Jeong Ah Kim,
Linda Fetters,
Masayoshi Kubo,
Kathryn L. Havens,
Sandrah P. Eckel,
Barbara Sargent Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
