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Influence of Eye Gaze on Spoken Word Processing: An ERP Study With Infants
Author(s) -
Parise Eugenio,
Handl Andrea,
Palumbo Letizia,
Friederici Angela D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01573.x
Subject(s) - gaze , psychology , eye contact , eye movement , eye tracking , joint attention , cognitive psychology , spoken language , communication , linguistics , developmental psychology , neuroscience , computer science , artificial intelligence , autism , philosophy , psychoanalysis
Eye gaze is an important communicative signal, both as mutual eye contact and as referential gaze to objects. To examine whether attention to speech versus nonspeech stimuli in 4‐ to 5‐month‐olds ( n = 15) varies as a function of eye gaze, event‐related brain potentials were used. Faces with mutual or averted gaze were presented in combination with forward‐ or backward‐spoken words. Infants rapidly processed gaze and spoken words in combination. A late Slow Wave suggests an interaction of the 2 factors, separating backward‐spoken word + direct gaze from all other conditions. An additional experiment ( n = 15) extended the results to referential gaze. The current findings suggest that interactions between visual and auditory cues are present early in infancy.