title: Domain general learning: Infants use social and non-social cues when learning object statistics.
abstract: Previous research has shown that infants can learn from social cues. But is a social cue more effective at directing learning than a non-social cue? This study investigated whether 9-month-old infants (N = 55) could learn a visual statistical regularity in the presence of a distracting visual sequence when attention was directed by either a social cue (a person) or a non-social cue (a rectangle). The results show that both social and non-social cues can guide infants' attention to a visual shape sequence (and away from a distracting sequence). The social cue more effectively directed attention than the non-social cue during the familiarization phase, but the social cue did not result in significantly stronger learning than the non-social cue. The findings suggest that domain general attention mechanisms allow for the comparable learning seen in both conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA ; Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Barry
authors.affiliation: Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Graf Estes
authors.affiliation: Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis Davis, CA, USA ; MIND Institute, Davis Medical Center, University of California, Sacramento Sacramento, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Rivera
keywords: eye tracking; gaze following; infancy; non-social cues; statistical learning