title: Intersensory redundancy accelerates preverbal numerical competence.
abstract: Intersensory redundancy can facilitate animal and human behavior in areas as diverse as rhythm discrimination, signal detection, orienting responses, maternal call learning, and associative learning. In the realm of numerical development, infants show similar sensitivity to numerical differences in both the visual and auditory modalities. Using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, we ask here, whether providing redundant, multisensory numerical information allows six-month-old infants to make more precise numerical discriminations. Results indicate that perceptually redundant information improved preverbal numerical precision to a level of discrimination previously thought attainable only after additional months of development. Multimodal stimuli may thus boost abstract cognitive abilities such as numerical competence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Utah State University, 487 Education Building, 2810 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322, USA. kerry.jordan@usu.edu
authors.forename: Kerry E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: Sumarga H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Suanda
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Brannon
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011930:Reaction Time; D014706:Verbal Learning