Six-month-old infants match other-race faces with a non-native language

Lesley Uttley , Anne Hillairet Hillairet de Boisferon (1) , Eve Dupierrix (1) , Kang Lee (2) , Paul C Quinn , Alan M Slater , Olivier Pascalis (1)

1 LPNC - Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition
2 Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study

Early in life, infants possess an effective face-processing system which becomes specialized according to the faces present in the environment. Infants are also exposed to the voices and sounds of caregivers. Previous studies have found that face–voice associations become progressively more tuned to the types of association most prevalent in the environment. The present study investigated whether 6-month old infants associate own-race faces with their native language and faces from a different race with a non-native language. Infants were presented with pictures of own- and other-race faces simultaneously, with a native or non-native language in a habituation paradigm. Results indicate that 6-month-olds are able to match other-race faces to a non-native language.

Domaines: Psychologie; Neurosciences; Psychologie et comportements

Lesley Uttley, Anne Hillairet Hillairet de Boisferon, Eve Dupierrix, Kang Lee, Paul C Quinn, et al.. Six-month-old infants match other-race faces with a non-native language. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2013, 37 (2), pp.83-88. ⟨10.1177/0165025412467583⟩. ⟨hal-01203113⟩