Human infants begin very early in life to take advantage of multisensory information by extracting the invariant amodal information that is conveyed redundantly by multiple senses. Here we addressed the question as to whether infants can bind multisensory moving stimuli, and whether this occurs even if the motion produced by the stimuli is only illusory. Three- to 4-month-old infants were presented with two bimodal pairings: visuo-tactile and audio-visual. Visuo-tactile pairings consisted of apparently vertically moving bars (the Barber Pole illusion) moving in either the same or opposite direction with a concurrent tactile stimulus consisting of strokes given on the infant's back. Audio-visual pairings consisted of the Barber Pole illusion in its visual and auditory version, the latter giving the impression of a continuous rising or ascending pitch. We found that infants were able to discriminate congruently (same direction) vs. incongruently moving (opposite direction) pairs irrespective of modality (Experiment 1). Importantly, we also found that congruently moving visuo-tactile and audio-visual stimuli were preferred over incongruently moving bimodal stimuli (Experiment 2). Our findings suggest that very young infants are able to extract motion as amodal component and use it to match stimuli that only apparently move in the same direction.

Nava, E., Grassi, M., Brenna, V., Croci, E., Turati, C. (2017). Multisensory motion perception in 3-4 month-old infants. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 8(Nov) [10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01994].

Multisensory motion perception in 3-4 month-old infants

Nava, Elena
Primo
;
Brenna, Viola;Croci, Emanuela
Penultimo
;
Turati, Chiara
Ultimo
2017

Abstract

Human infants begin very early in life to take advantage of multisensory information by extracting the invariant amodal information that is conveyed redundantly by multiple senses. Here we addressed the question as to whether infants can bind multisensory moving stimuli, and whether this occurs even if the motion produced by the stimuli is only illusory. Three- to 4-month-old infants were presented with two bimodal pairings: visuo-tactile and audio-visual. Visuo-tactile pairings consisted of apparently vertically moving bars (the Barber Pole illusion) moving in either the same or opposite direction with a concurrent tactile stimulus consisting of strokes given on the infant's back. Audio-visual pairings consisted of the Barber Pole illusion in its visual and auditory version, the latter giving the impression of a continuous rising or ascending pitch. We found that infants were able to discriminate congruently (same direction) vs. incongruently moving (opposite direction) pairs irrespective of modality (Experiment 1). Importantly, we also found that congruently moving visuo-tactile and audio-visual stimuli were preferred over incongruently moving bimodal stimuli (Experiment 2). Our findings suggest that very young infants are able to extract motion as amodal component and use it to match stimuli that only apparently move in the same direction.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Amodal; Audio-visual; Development; Motion; Multisensory; Visuo-tactile; Psychology (all)
English
2017
8
Nov
1994
open
Nava, E., Grassi, M., Brenna, V., Croci, E., Turati, C. (2017). Multisensory motion perception in 3-4 month-old infants. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 8(Nov) [10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01994].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
10281-181148.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia di allegato: Publisher’s Version (Version of Record, VoR)
Dimensione 607.27 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
607.27 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/181148
Citazioni
  • Scopus 2
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
Social impact