Narrowing of intersensory speech perception in infancy |
| |
| Authors: | Ferran Pons David J Lewkowicz Salvador Soto-Faraco Núria Sebastián-Gallés |
| |
| Institution: | aDepartament de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, Pg. Vall d''Hebrón 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; ;bDepartment of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431; and ;cInstitució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, c/ Tanger 122-140, 08018 Barcelona, Spain |
| |
| Abstract: | The conventional view is that perceptual/cognitive development is an incremental process of acquisition. Several striking findings have revealed, however, that the sensitivity to non-native languages, faces, vocalizations, and music that is present early in life declines as infants acquire experience with native perceptual inputs. In the language domain, the decline in sensitivity is reflected in a process of perceptual narrowing that is thought to play a critical role during the acquisition of a native-language phonological system. Here, we provide evidence that such a decline also occurs in infant response to multisensory speech. We found that infant intersensory response to a non-native phonetic contrast narrows between 6 and 11 months of age, suggesting that the perceptual system becomes increasingly more tuned to key native-language audiovisual correspondences. Our findings lend support to the notion that perceptual narrowing is a domain-general as well as a pan-sensory developmental process. |
| |
| Keywords: | audiovisual speech infants perceptual narrowing |
|
|
