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Perception of Multisensory Gender Coherence in 6‐ and 9‐Month‐Old Infants
Author(s) -
Hillairet de Boisferon Anne,
Dupierrix Eve,
Quinn Paul C.,
Lœvenbruck Hélène,
Lewkowicz David J.,
Lee Kang,
Pascalis Olivier
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1111/infa.12088
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , developmental psychology , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , singing , rhyme , physics , management , poetry , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , economics , art , literature
One of the most salient social categories conveyed by human faces and voices is gender. We investigated the developmental emergence of the ability to perceive the coherence of auditory and visual attributes of gender in 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants. Infants viewed two side‐by‐side video clips of a man and a woman singing a nursery rhyme and heard a synchronous male or female sound track. Results showed that 6‐month‐old infants did not match the audible and visible attributes of gender, and 9‐month‐old infants matched only female faces and voices. These findings indicate that the ability to perceive the multisensory coherence of gender emerges relatively late in infancy and that it reflects the greater experience that most infants have with female faces and voices.