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Tracking infant attention to talking faces

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Date Issued:
2012
Summary:
Speech perception plays an important role in how infants begin to produce speech. This study aims to understand how changes in infant selective attention to various parts of talking faces guides their understanding of speech and subsequent production. In this study, we tracked infant (4-12 months of age) and adult gaze patterns to determine where on a face they attend, when hearing and seeing the face speak in either their native (English) or a non-native language (Spanish). We also tracked infant selective attention to moving-silent and silent-static faces, to determine if this would result in different patterns of attention. The findings suggest that there are two shifts in infant attention. The first shift occurs between four and eight months of age, with infants shifting their eyes to the mouth of the talking face. The second shift occurs around twelve months of age, when infants begin to return their gaze back to the eye region when hearing and seeing their native language, but continue to attend to the mouth region when hearing and seeing the non-native language. Overall, the results of this study suggest that changes in selective attention to talking faces guides the development of speech production and is dependent on early language experience.
Title: Tracking infant attention to talking faces.
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Name(s): Tift, Amy H.
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Department of Psychology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 2012
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
Extent: x, 43 p. : ill. (some col.)
Language(s): English
Summary: Speech perception plays an important role in how infants begin to produce speech. This study aims to understand how changes in infant selective attention to various parts of talking faces guides their understanding of speech and subsequent production. In this study, we tracked infant (4-12 months of age) and adult gaze patterns to determine where on a face they attend, when hearing and seeing the face speak in either their native (English) or a non-native language (Spanish). We also tracked infant selective attention to moving-silent and silent-static faces, to determine if this would result in different patterns of attention. The findings suggest that there are two shifts in infant attention. The first shift occurs between four and eight months of age, with infants shifting their eyes to the mouth of the talking face. The second shift occurs around twelve months of age, when infants begin to return their gaze back to the eye region when hearing and seeing their native language, but continue to attend to the mouth region when hearing and seeing the non-native language. Overall, the results of this study suggest that changes in selective attention to talking faces guides the development of speech production and is dependent on early language experience.
Identifier: 835952274 (oclc), 3359157 (digitool), FADT3359157 (IID), fau:4055 (fedora)
Note(s): by Amy H. Tift.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012.
Includes bibliography.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: Adobe Reader.
Subject(s): Child development
Visual perception in infants
Cognition in infants
Interpersonal communication in infants
Language acquisition
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359157
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU