The development of audiovisual vowel processing in monolingual and bilingual infants: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

127 p.The aim of the current dissertation is to investigate to what extent infants acquiring one language (monolinguals) and infants acquiring two languages (bilinguals) share their strategies during audiovisual speech processing. The dissertation focuses on typically developing Basque and Spanish monolingual and bilingual infants' processing of matching and mismatching audio-visual vowels at 4 and 8 months of age. Using an eye-tracker, the infants' attention to audiovisual match versus mismatch conditions and to the speakers' eyes versus mouth was measured in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. The cross-sectional data revealed that bilingual and monolingual infants exhibited similar audiovisual matching ability. Furthermore, they exhibited similar looking pattern: at 4 months of age, monolinguals and bilinguals attended more to the speakers' eyes, whereas at 8 months of age they attended equally to the eyes and to the mouth. Finally, the longitudinal data revealed that infants' attention to the eyes versus the mouth is correlated between 4 and 8 months of age, regardless of the linguistic group. Taken together, the current research demonstrated no clear difference in audiovisual vowel processing between monolingual and bilingual infants. Overall, the dissertation has made fundamental contributions to understanding underlying processes in language acquisition across linguistically diverse populations.bcbl: basque center on cognition, brain and languag

The development of audiovisual vowel processing in monolingual and bilingual infants: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

127 p.The aim of the current dissertation is to investigate to what extent infants acquiring one language (monolinguals) and infants acquiring two languages (bilinguals) share their strategies during audiovisual speech processing. The dissertation focuses on typically developing Basque and Spanish monolingual and bilingual infants' processing of matching and mismatching audio-visual vowels at 4 and 8 months of age. Using an eye-tracker, the infants' attention to audiovisual match versus mismatch conditions and to the speakers' eyes versus mouth was measured in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. The cross-sectional data revealed that bilingual and monolingual infants exhibited similar audiovisual matching ability. Furthermore, they exhibited similar looking pattern: at 4 months of age, monolinguals and bilinguals attended more to the speakers' eyes, whereas at 8 months of age they attended equally to the eyes and to the mouth. Finally, the longitudinal data revealed that infants' attention to the eyes versus the mouth is correlated between 4 and 8 months of age, regardless of the linguistic group. Taken together, the current research demonstrated no clear difference in audiovisual vowel processing between monolingual and bilingual infants. Overall, the dissertation has made fundamental contributions to understanding underlying processes in language acquisition across linguistically diverse populations.bcbl: basque center on cognition, brain and languag

The Development of Spontaneous Sound-Shape Matching in Monolingual and Bilingual Infants During the First Year

Online First November 17, 2016Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000237.suppRecently it has been proposed that sensitivity to nonarbitrary relationships between speech sounds and objects potentially bootstraps lexical acquisition. However, it is currently unclear whether preverbal infants (e.g., before 6 months of age) with different linguistic profiles are sensitive to such nonarbitrary relationships. Here, the authors assessed 4- and 12-month-old Basque monolingual and Spanish-Basque bilingual infants’ sensitivity to cross-modal correspondences between sound symbolic nonwords without syllable repetition (buba, kike) and drawings of rounded and angular shapes. The findings demonstrate that sensitivity to sound-shape correspondences emerge by 12 months of age in both monolinguals and bilinguals. This finding suggests that spontaneous sound-shape matching is likely to be the product of language learning and development and may not be readily available prior to the onset of word learning

Speaker matters: Natural inter-speaker variation affects 4-month-olds’ perception of audio-visual speech

First Published September 27, 2019In the language development literature, studies often make inferences about infants’ speech perception abilities based on their responses to a single speaker. However, there can be significant natural variability across speakers in how speech is produced (i.e., inter-speaker differences). The current study examined whether inter-speaker differences can affect infants’ ability to detect a mismatch between the auditory and visual components of vowels. Using an eye-tracker, 4.5-month-old infants were tested on auditory-visual (AV) matching for two vowels (/i/ and /u/). Critically, infants were tested with two speakers who naturally differed in how distinctively they articulated the two vowels within and across the categories. Only infants who watched and listened to the speaker whose visual articulations of the two vowels were most distinct from one another were sensitive to AV mismatch. This speaker also produced a visually more distinct /i/ as compared to the other speaker. This finding suggests that infants are sensitive to the distinctiveness of AV information across speakers, and that when making inferences about infants’ perceptual abilities, characteristics of the speaker should be taken into account.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/ or publication of this article: This research was funded by the grant PSI2014-5452-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to M.M. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the ‘Severo Ochoa Program for Centers/Units of Excellence in R&D’ (SEV-2015-490) and from the Basque Government ‘Programa Predoctoral’ to J.P

The effects of bilingualism on attentional processes in the first year of life

First published: 30 June 2020Bilingualism is a powerful experiential factor, and its effects have been proposed to extend beyond the linguistic domain by boosting the development of executive functioning skills. Crucially, recent findings suggest that this effect can be detected in bilingual infants before their first birthday indicating that it emerges as a result of early bilingual exposure and the experience of negotiating two linguistic systems in infants' environment. However, these conclusions are based on only two research studies from the last decade (Comishen, Bialystok, & Adler, 2019; Kovács & Mehler, 2009), so to date, there is a lack of evidence regarding their replicability and generalizability. In addition, previous research does not shed light on the precise aspects of bilingual experience and the extent of bilingual exposure underlying the emergence of this early bilingual advantage. The present study addressed these two questions by assessing attentional control abilities in 7-month-old bilingual infants in comparison to same-age monolinguals and in relation to their individual bilingual exposure patterns. Findings did not reveal significant differences between monolingual and bilingual infants in the measure of attentional control and no relation between individual performance and degree of bilingual exposure. Bilinguals showed different patterns of allocating attention to the visual rewards in this task compared to monolinguals. Thus, this study indicates that bilingualism modulates attentional processes early on, possibly as a result of bilinguals' experience of encoding dual-language information from a complex linguistic input, but it does not lead to significant advantages in attentional control in the first year of life.Eusko Jaurlaritza, Grant/Award Number: BERC 2018-2021; Spanish State Research Agency Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation, Grant/Award Number: SEV- 2015-0490; H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant/Award Number: 79890

The development of audiovisual vowel processing in monolingual and bilingual infants: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

127 p.The aim of the current dissertation is to investigate to what extent infants acquiring one language (monolinguals) and infants acquiring two languages (bilinguals) share their strategies during audiovisual speech processing. The dissertation focuses on typically developing Basque and Spanish monolingual and bilingual infants' processing of matching and mismatching audio-visual vowels at 4 and 8 months of age. Using an eye-tracker, the infants' attention to audiovisual match versus mismatch conditions and to the speakers' eyes versus mouth was measured in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. The cross-sectional data revealed that bilingual and monolingual infants exhibited similar audiovisual matching ability. Furthermore, they exhibited similar looking pattern: at 4 months of age, monolinguals and bilinguals attended more to the speakers' eyes, whereas at 8 months of age they attended equally to the eyes and to the mouth. Finally, the longitudinal data revealed that infants' attention to the eyes versus the mouth is correlated between 4 and 8 months of age, regardless of the linguistic group. Taken together, the current research demonstrated no clear difference in audiovisual vowel processing between monolingual and bilingual infants. Overall, the dissertation has made fundamental contributions to understanding underlying processes in language acquisition across linguistically diverse populations.bcbl: basque center on cognition, brain and languag

Eyes can tell. Attention to the eyes and the mouth during audiovisual vowel processing in monolingual and bilingual infants

After 6 months of age monolingual infants look more to the mouth of a speaker when there is a mismatch (as opposed to match) between heard and (visually) articulated native consonants. Here, we examined whether monolingual and bilingual infants increase their attention to speakers’ mouth when processing vowels. We compared 4.5- and 8-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants’ attention to the eyes and the mouth while presented with native vowels in audiovisual match and mismatch conditions. We observed that 4.5-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants detect the AV mismatch by increasing their attention to the eyes, not to the mouth – as has been previously observed for consonants. However, by 8 months of age monolingual and bilingual infants’ attention to the eyes and the mouth is not affected by audiovisual disruption. Our findings suggest that audiovisual vowel and consonant processing differ during the first year of life, and that the specific type of linguistic experience does not modulate selective attention to the mouth or the eyes during vowel processing

Eyes can tell. Attention to the eyes and the mouth during audiovisual vowel processing in monolingual and bilingual infants

After 6 months of age monolingual infants look more to the mouth of a speaker when there is a mismatch (as opposed to match) between heard and (visually) articulated native consonants. Here, we examined whether monolingual and bilingual infants increase their attention to speakers’ mouth when processing vowels. We compared 4.5- and 8-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants’ attention to the eyes and the mouth while presented with native vowels in audiovisual match and mismatch conditions. We observed that 4.5-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants detect the AV mismatch by increasing their attention to the eyes, not to the mouth – as has been previously observed for consonants. However, by 8 months of age monolingual and bilingual infants’ attention to the eyes and the mouth is not affected by audiovisual disruption. Our findings suggest that audiovisual vowel and consonant processing differ during the first year of life, and that the specific type of linguistic experience does not modulate selective attention to the mouth or the eyes during vowel processing