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Is Infant Learning of Non-Adjacent Sequential Relations a Domain-General Ability and When Does It Emerge?

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Date Issued:
2014
Summary:
Non-adjacent statistical relations are an important class of sequential structure because they aid in the acquisition of syntax and, thus, language. Previous work has demonstrated that 15-month-old infants are sensitive to distant sequential relations but that these types of relations are difficult to learn. Importantly, it is not known whether the ability to learn non-adjacent statistical relations is based on a domain-specific or domain-general pattern-learning mechanism. We examined the domain-generality of this ability in separate groups of 10- and 12-month-old infants in two experiments utilizing the habituation/test procedure.

Experiment 1 habituated infants to sequences of five moving/sounding arbitrary shapes and sounds. The sequences contained two target elements that were always separated by a non-target element. Results indicated that neither age group displayed response recovery when the target elements were switched. Experiment 2 simplified the task by using sequences that were three elements in length e.g., ABC and DBE. During the test trials, the last element from the two unique pairings was again switched e.g., ABE and DBC. Results indicated that only the 12-month-olds detected a change in the sequence [t 48 1.76, p 0.05].

These results indicate that infants’ sensitivity to multisensory non-adjacent statistical dependencies is limited to simple 3 element sequences rather than complex 5 element sequences. Our findings also indicate that infants as young as 12 months of age can learn non-adjacent sequential relations embedded within arbitrary audiovisual sequences, suggesting that this critical ability is domain-general in nature.
Title: Is Infant Learning of Non-Adjacent Sequential Relations a Domain-General Ability and When Does It Emerge?.
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Name(s): Minar, Nicholas J., author
Lewkowicz, David J.
Graduate College
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Poster
Date Created: 2014
Date Issued: 2014
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Florida
Physical Form: pdf
Extent: 1 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Non-adjacent statistical relations are an important class of sequential structure because they aid in the acquisition of syntax and, thus, language. Previous work has demonstrated that 15-month-old infants are sensitive to distant sequential relations but that these types of relations are difficult to learn. Importantly, it is not known whether the ability to learn non-adjacent statistical relations is based on a domain-specific or domain-general pattern-learning mechanism. We examined the domain-generality of this ability in separate groups of 10- and 12-month-old infants in two experiments utilizing the habituation/test procedure.

Experiment 1 habituated infants to sequences of five moving/sounding arbitrary shapes and sounds. The sequences contained two target elements that were always separated by a non-target element. Results indicated that neither age group displayed response recovery when the target elements were switched. Experiment 2 simplified the task by using sequences that were three elements in length e.g., ABC and DBE. During the test trials, the last element from the two unique pairings was again switched e.g., ABE and DBC. Results indicated that only the 12-month-olds detected a change in the sequence [t 48 1.76, p 0.05].

These results indicate that infants’ sensitivity to multisensory non-adjacent statistical dependencies is limited to simple 3 element sequences rather than complex 5 element sequences. Our findings also indicate that infants as young as 12 months of age can learn non-adjacent sequential relations embedded within arbitrary audiovisual sequences, suggesting that this critical ability is domain-general in nature.
Identifier: FA00005159 (IID)
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: FAU Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00005159
Restrictions on Access: Author retains copyright.
Host Institution: FAU