Domain general learning: infants use social and non-social cues when learning object statistics

Frontiers in Psychology

Katharine eGraf Estes¹  Ryan A. Barry¹  Susan M. Rivera¹ 

[1] University of California, Davis;

关键词: Infancy;    eye tracking;    statistical learning;    gaze following;    non-social cues;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00551

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

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 learning 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.

【 授权许可】

Unknown