Читать книгу Infants and Children in Context - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 238

All stimuli we encounter involve more than one type of sensory information. For example, we see a dog but we also hear its bark. Not only are infants able to sense in multiple modalities, but they are able to coordinate their senses. Intermodal perception is the process of combining information from more than one sensory system (Johnson & Hannon, 2015). Sensitivity to intermodal relations among stimuli is critical to perceptual development and learning—and this sensitivity emerges early in life (Lewkowicz, Leo, & Simion, 2010). That is, infants expect vision, auditory, and tactile information to occur together (Sai, 2005). For example, newborns turn their heads and eyes in the direction of a sound source, suggesting that they intuitively recognize that auditory and visual information co-occur and provide information about spatial location (Newell, 2004).

Newborns show a preference for viewing their mother’s face at 72, 12, and even just 4 hours after birth (Pascalis, Dechonen, Morton, Duruelle, & Grenet, 1995). It was once believed that infants’ preference for their mother’s face was innate. Are infants born knowing their mother’s face? In one study, neonates were able to visually recognize their mother’s face only if the face was paired with their mother’s voice at least once after birth (Sai, 2005). Thus, intermodal perception is evident at birth because neonates can coordinate auditory (voice) and visual stimuli (face) to recognize their mother. They quickly remember the association and demonstrate a preference for her face even when it is not paired with her voice.

Infants integrate touch and vision very early in life. In one classic study, 1-month-old infants were presented with a smooth-surfaced pacifier or one with nubs on it. After exploring it with their mouths, the infants were shown two pacifiers—one smooth and one nubbed. The infants preferred to look at the shape they had sucked, suggesting that they could match tactile and visual stimuli (Meltzoff & Borton, 1979). In another example, 8- to 31-day-old infants fitted with special goggles were presented with a virtual object created by a shadow caster (Bower, Broughton, & Moore, 1970). The virtual object was an illusory object that could be seen by the infant but not touched. When the infant reached for the object, his or her hand felt nothing and flailed through the air. Infants exposed to the virtual object attempted to reach for it and became distressed when they did not feel it, suggesting that vision and touch are integrated and infants expect to feel objects that they can see and reach. Infants’ ability to integrate sensory information has implications for learning as discussed in the Lives in Context feature.