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    Infants use social signals to learn from unfamiliar referential cues

    Wu, Rachel and Kirkham, Natasha Z. and Swan, Kristen A. and Gliga, Teodora (2011) Infants use social signals to learn from unfamiliar referential cues. In: Carlson, L. and Hoelscher, C. and Shipley, T.F. (eds.) Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive cience Society. Austin, Texas, USA: Cognitive Science Society. ISBN 9780976831877.

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    Abstract

    Infants are bombarded with a bewildering array of events to learn. In such an environment, referential cues (e.g., gestures or symbols) highlight which events infants should learn. Although many studies have documented which referential cues guide attention and learning during infancy, few have investigated how this learning occurs. The present eye-tracking study provides clear evidence for a social scaffolding process: When preceded repeatedly by communicative signals (i.e., a face addressing the infant), 9-month-olds learned that arbitrary cues predicted the appearance of an audio-visual event. Importantly, the arbitrary cues continued to guide learning of these events, even after the face disappeared from the screen. A control condition confirmed that learning from arbitrary cues alone was unsuccessful, and that eventual success was not just due to extended practice. These results are discussed in terms of a theory of cue scaffolding.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book Section
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): attention cues, multimodal binding, infant eyetracking, cognitive development, social cues
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD)
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 06 Oct 2015 08:57
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:18
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/13003

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