The Influence of Infant-Directed Speech on Attention, Visual Processing, and Learning

• Applicant: Dr. Stefanie Peykarjou
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461395728

When adults are talking to infants, they usually employ a high-pitched and melodic way of speaking with short, simple sentences that has been referred to as infant-directed (ID) speech (review by Saint-Georges et al., 2013). There is compelling evidence that this way of speaking elicits infant attention and aids infants in learning language (see reviews by Dunst, Gorman, & Hamby, 2012; Spinelli, Fasolo, & Mesman, 2017). Much less is known regarding its role for learning in other domains and cognitive development in general. The current project aims at investigating cross-modal effects of ID speech on visual attention, processing, and learning.To this end, three studies employing electroencephalographic (EEG) and looking (eyetracking) measures will be performed with 4- (studies 1 and 2) and 12- and 21-month-old infants (study 3). Study 1 tests attention to visual stimuli accompanied by ID versus adult-directed (AD) speech in an event-related-potential (ERP) cueing paradigm. Speech stimuli will be coupled with images, which will be presented directly again without accompanying sound. Stimuli previously cued by ID speech will subsequently elicit lower attention than stimuli that were cued by AD speech as indexed by the Nc ERP component. This is because stimuli cued by ID speech have been processed more comprehensively during cueing. Gamma activity will be decreased during cueing for ID compared to AD speech, indicating infants’ increased focus.Study 2 assesses the effect of ID speech on visual processing. In a Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation (FPVS) oddball paradigm (Rossion, 2014), EEG categorization responses will be compared between conditions in which ID or AD speech is presented simultaneously. Categorization responses will be enhanced during ID speech. This effect will be enhanced for social compared to non-social target stimuli, i.e., human faces compared to cars. In study 3, the influence of ID speech on short-term memory will be examined. The names of novel visual objects will be introduced in ID and AD speech. After a learning phase, these images will be presented again in a visual paired preference paradigm. It is expected that images which have previously been presented with AD speech will elicit longer looking times in 12-month-old infants, reflecting poorer processing during the initial presentation. Object-label associations, indicated by increased looking at the target when asked for it, will be evident only at 21 months of age for labels presented in ID speech.Together, these three studies will inform us whether ID speech holds a special role for visual processing, similar to its role in auditory processing.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants