Rule learning (RL) refers to infants’ ability to extract high‐order, repetition‐based rules from a sequence of elements and to generalize them to new items. RL has been demonstrated in both the auditory and the visual modality, but no studies have investigated infants’ transfer of learning across these two modalities, a process that is fundamental for the development of many complex cognitive skills. Using a visual habituation procedure within a cross‐modal RL task, we tested 7‐month‐old infants’ transfer of learning both from speech to vision (auditory‐visual—AV—condition) and from vision to speech (visual‐auditory—VA—condition). Results showed a transfer of learning in the AV condition, but only for those infants who were able to efficiently extract the rule during the learning (habituation) phase. In contrast, in the VA condition infants provided no evidence of RL. Overall, this study indicates that 7‐month‐old infants can transfers high‐order rules across modalities with an advantage for transferring from speech to vision, and that this ability is constrained by infants’ individual differences in the way they process the to‐be‐learned rules.

Bulf, H., Quadrelli, E., Brady, S., Nguyen, B., Macchi Cassia, V., Johnson, S. (2021). Rule learning transfer across linguistic and visual modalities in 7‐month‐old infants. INFANCY, 26(3 (May/June 2021)), 442-454 [10.1111/infa.12397].

Rule learning transfer across linguistic and visual modalities in 7‐month‐old infants

Bulf, Hermann
Primo
;
Quadrelli, Ermanno;Macchi Cassia, Viola;
2021

Abstract

Rule learning (RL) refers to infants’ ability to extract high‐order, repetition‐based rules from a sequence of elements and to generalize them to new items. RL has been demonstrated in both the auditory and the visual modality, but no studies have investigated infants’ transfer of learning across these two modalities, a process that is fundamental for the development of many complex cognitive skills. Using a visual habituation procedure within a cross‐modal RL task, we tested 7‐month‐old infants’ transfer of learning both from speech to vision (auditory‐visual—AV—condition) and from vision to speech (visual‐auditory—VA—condition). Results showed a transfer of learning in the AV condition, but only for those infants who were able to efficiently extract the rule during the learning (habituation) phase. In contrast, in the VA condition infants provided no evidence of RL. Overall, this study indicates that 7‐month‐old infants can transfers high‐order rules across modalities with an advantage for transferring from speech to vision, and that this ability is constrained by infants’ individual differences in the way they process the to‐be‐learned rules.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
abstraction; cross modal; infants; rule learning; transfer;
English
11-mar-2021
2021
26
3 (May/June 2021)
442
454
none
Bulf, H., Quadrelli, E., Brady, S., Nguyen, B., Macchi Cassia, V., Johnson, S. (2021). Rule learning transfer across linguistic and visual modalities in 7‐month‐old infants. INFANCY, 26(3 (May/June 2021)), 442-454 [10.1111/infa.12397].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/306889
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