Tracking adjacent (AD) and non-adjacent (NAD) dependencies in a sequence of elements is critical for the development of many complex abilities, such as language acquisition and social interaction. While learning of AD in infancy is a domain-general ability that is functioning across different domains, infants’ processing of NAD has been reported only for speech sequences. Here, we tested 9- to 12- and 13- to 15-month-olds’ ability to extract AxB grammars in visual sequences of unfamiliar elements. Infants were habituated to a series of 3-visual arrays following an AxB grammar in which the first element (A) predicted the third element (B), while intervening X elements changed continuously. Following habituation, infants were tested with 3-item arrays in which initial and final positions were switched (novel) or kept consistent with the habituation phase (familiar). Older infants successfully recognized the familiar AxB grammar at test, whereas the younger group showed some sensitivity to extract to NAD, albeit in a less robust form. This finding provides the first evidence that the ability to track NAD is a domain-general ability that is present also in the visual domain and that the sensitivity to such dependencies is related to developmental changes, as demonstrated in the auditory domain.

Bettoni, R., Bulf, H., Brady, S., Johnson, S. (2021). Infants’ learning of non‐adjacent regularities from visual sequences. INFANCY, 26(2 - March/April 2021), 319-326 [10.1111/infa.12384].

Infants’ learning of non‐adjacent regularities from visual sequences

Bettoni, Roberta
;
Bulf, Hermann;
2021

Abstract

Tracking adjacent (AD) and non-adjacent (NAD) dependencies in a sequence of elements is critical for the development of many complex abilities, such as language acquisition and social interaction. While learning of AD in infancy is a domain-general ability that is functioning across different domains, infants’ processing of NAD has been reported only for speech sequences. Here, we tested 9- to 12- and 13- to 15-month-olds’ ability to extract AxB grammars in visual sequences of unfamiliar elements. Infants were habituated to a series of 3-visual arrays following an AxB grammar in which the first element (A) predicted the third element (B), while intervening X elements changed continuously. Following habituation, infants were tested with 3-item arrays in which initial and final positions were switched (novel) or kept consistent with the habituation phase (familiar). Older infants successfully recognized the familiar AxB grammar at test, whereas the younger group showed some sensitivity to extract to NAD, albeit in a less robust form. This finding provides the first evidence that the ability to track NAD is a domain-general ability that is present also in the visual domain and that the sensitivity to such dependencies is related to developmental changes, as demonstrated in the auditory domain.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Infants, visual statistical learning, non-adjacent dependencies;
English
13-gen-2021
2021
26
2 - March/April 2021
319
326
none
Bettoni, R., Bulf, H., Brady, S., Johnson, S. (2021). Infants’ learning of non‐adjacent regularities from visual sequences. INFANCY, 26(2 - March/April 2021), 319-326 [10.1111/infa.12384].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/306594
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