The development of infant learning about specific face-voice relations.
This study examined the development of infants' ability to perceive, learn, and remember the unique face-voice relations of unfamiliar adults. Infants of 2, 4, and 6 months were habituated to the faces and voices of 2 same-gender adults speaking and then received test trials where the faces and voices were synchronized yet mismatched. Results indicated that 4- and 6-month-olds, but not 2-month-olds, detected the change in face-voice pairings. Two-month-olds did, however, discriminate among the faces and voices in a control study. Results of a subsequent intermodal matching procedure indicated that only the 6-month-olds showed matching and memory for the face-voice relations. These findings suggest that infants' ability to detect the arbitrary relations between specific faces and voices of unfamiliar adults emerges between 2 and 4 months of age, whereas matching and memory for these relations emerges somewhat later, perhaps between 4 and 6 months of age.
Bahrick
Lorraine E
LE
Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA. bahrick@fiu.edu
Hernandez-Reif
Maria
M
Flom
Ross
R
D002657:Child Development; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D014743:Videotape Recording; D014831:Voice