Intersensory redundancy accelerates preverbal numerical competence - PubMed (original) (raw)

Intersensory redundancy accelerates preverbal numerical competence

Kerry E Jordan et al. Cognition. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Intersensory redundancy can facilitate animal and human behavior in areas as diverse as rhythm discrimination, signal detection, orienting responses, maternal call learning, and associative learning. In the realm of numerical development, infants show similar sensitivity to numerical differences in both the visual and auditory modalities. Using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, we ask here, whether providing redundant, multisensory numerical information allows six-month-old infants to make more precise numerical discriminations. Results indicate that perceptually redundant information improved preverbal numerical precision to a level of discrimination previously thought attainable only after additional months of development. Multimodal stimuli may thus boost abstract cognitive abilities such as numerical competence.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Mean looking times for the first three habituation trials, last three habituation trials, test trials with novel numerosity, and test trials with familiar numerosity for Experiment 1, 2a, and 2b. Error bars represent standard error.

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