A wealth of studies show that human adults map ordered information onto a directional spatial continuum. We asked whether mapping ordinal information into a directional space constitutes an early predisposition, already functional prior to the acquisition of symbolic knowledge and language. While it is known that preverbal infants represent numerical order along a left-to-right spatial continuum, no studies have investigated yet whether infants, like adults, organize any kind of ordinal information onto a directional space. We investigated whether 7-month-olds' ability to learn high-order rule-like patterns from visual sequences of geometric shapes was affected by the spatial orientation of the sequences (left-to-right vs. right-to-left). Results showed that infants readily learn rule-like patterns when visual sequences were presented from left to right, but not when presented from right to left. This result provides evidence that spatial orientation critically determines preverbal infants' ability to perceive and learn ordered information in visual sequences, opening to the idea that a left-to-right spatially organized mental representation of ordered dimensions might be rooted in biologically-determined constraints on human brain development.

Bulf, H., de Hevia, M., Gariboldi, V., MACCHI CASSIA, V. (2017). Infants learn better from left to right: A directional bias in infants' sequence learning. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 7(1), 1-6 [10.1038/s41598-017-02466-w].

Infants learn better from left to right: A directional bias in infants' sequence learning

BULF, HERMANN SERGIO
Primo
;
MACCHI CASSIA, VIOLA MARINA
Ultimo
2017

Abstract

A wealth of studies show that human adults map ordered information onto a directional spatial continuum. We asked whether mapping ordinal information into a directional space constitutes an early predisposition, already functional prior to the acquisition of symbolic knowledge and language. While it is known that preverbal infants represent numerical order along a left-to-right spatial continuum, no studies have investigated yet whether infants, like adults, organize any kind of ordinal information onto a directional space. We investigated whether 7-month-olds' ability to learn high-order rule-like patterns from visual sequences of geometric shapes was affected by the spatial orientation of the sequences (left-to-right vs. right-to-left). Results showed that infants readily learn rule-like patterns when visual sequences were presented from left to right, but not when presented from right to left. This result provides evidence that spatial orientation critically determines preverbal infants' ability to perceive and learn ordered information in visual sequences, opening to the idea that a left-to-right spatially organized mental representation of ordered dimensions might be rooted in biologically-determined constraints on human brain development.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
serial order, space, rule learning, infants, working memory
English
2017
7
1
1
6
2437
partially_open
Bulf, H., de Hevia, M., Gariboldi, V., MACCHI CASSIA, V. (2017). Infants learn better from left to right: A directional bias in infants' sequence learning. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 7(1), 1-6 [10.1038/s41598-017-02466-w].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/156190
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