Infants’ conceptual representations of meaningful verbal and nonverbal sounds

Psychology

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Infancy and Early Development

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233968
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Infants’ conceptual representations of meaningful verbal and nonverbal sounds. / Sirri, L.; Guerra, E.; Linnert, S. et al.
In: PLoS ONE, Vol. 15, No. 6, e0233968, 08.06.2020.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{ff8a6897f9a74404bc5264e1ec3394bf,

title = "Infants{\textquoteright} conceptual representations of meaningful verbal and nonverbal sounds",

abstract = "In adults, words are more effective than sounds at activating conceptual representations. We aimed to replicate these findings and extend them to infants. In a series of experiments using an eye tracker object recognition task, suitable for both adults and infants, participants heard either a word (e.g. cow) or an associated sound (e.g. mooing) followed by an image illustrating a target (e.g. cow) and a distracter (e.g. telephone). The results showed that adults reacted faster when the visual object matched the auditory stimulus and even faster in the word relative to the associated sound condition. Infants, however, did not show a similar pattern of eye-movements: only eighteen-month-olds, but not 9- or 12-month-olds, were equally fast at recognizing the target object in both conditions. Looking times, however, were longer for associated sounds, suggesting that processing sounds elicits greater allocation of attention. Our findings suggest that the advantage of words over associated sounds in activating conceptual representations emerges at a later stage during language development.",

keywords = "adult, age, Article, attention, auditory stimulation, child, concept formation, controlled study, eye movement, eye tracker object recognition task, female, hearing, human, human experiment, infant, language development, male, normal human, novel object recognition test, sound, visual stimulation, voice, young adult",

author = "L. Sirri and E. Guerra and S. Linnert and E.S. Smith and V. Reid and E. Parise",

year = "2020",

month = jun,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0233968",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

journal = "PLoS ONE",

issn = "1932-6203",

publisher = "Public Library of Science",

number = "6",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Infants’ conceptual representations of meaningful verbal and nonverbal sounds

AU - Sirri, L.

AU - Guerra, E.

AU - Linnert, S.

AU - Smith, E.S.

AU - Reid, V.

AU - Parise, E.

PY - 2020/6/8

Y1 - 2020/6/8

N2 - In adults, words are more effective than sounds at activating conceptual representations. We aimed to replicate these findings and extend them to infants. In a series of experiments using an eye tracker object recognition task, suitable for both adults and infants, participants heard either a word (e.g. cow) or an associated sound (e.g. mooing) followed by an image illustrating a target (e.g. cow) and a distracter (e.g. telephone). The results showed that adults reacted faster when the visual object matched the auditory stimulus and even faster in the word relative to the associated sound condition. Infants, however, did not show a similar pattern of eye-movements: only eighteen-month-olds, but not 9- or 12-month-olds, were equally fast at recognizing the target object in both conditions. Looking times, however, were longer for associated sounds, suggesting that processing sounds elicits greater allocation of attention. Our findings suggest that the advantage of words over associated sounds in activating conceptual representations emerges at a later stage during language development.

AB - In adults, words are more effective than sounds at activating conceptual representations. We aimed to replicate these findings and extend them to infants. In a series of experiments using an eye tracker object recognition task, suitable for both adults and infants, participants heard either a word (e.g. cow) or an associated sound (e.g. mooing) followed by an image illustrating a target (e.g. cow) and a distracter (e.g. telephone). The results showed that adults reacted faster when the visual object matched the auditory stimulus and even faster in the word relative to the associated sound condition. Infants, however, did not show a similar pattern of eye-movements: only eighteen-month-olds, but not 9- or 12-month-olds, were equally fast at recognizing the target object in both conditions. Looking times, however, were longer for associated sounds, suggesting that processing sounds elicits greater allocation of attention. Our findings suggest that the advantage of words over associated sounds in activating conceptual representations emerges at a later stage during language development.

KW - adult

KW - age

KW - Article

KW - attention

KW - auditory stimulation

KW - child

KW - concept formation

KW - controlled study

KW - eye movement

KW - eye tracker object recognition task

KW - female

KW - hearing

KW - human

KW - human experiment

KW - infant

KW - language development

KW - male

KW - normal human

KW - novel object recognition test

KW - sound

KW - visual stimulation

KW - voice

KW - young adult

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0233968

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0233968

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 32512583

VL - 15

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 6

M1 - e0233968

ER -

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