| Abstract: | To investigate sensory dominance in early development, a series of studies was conducted to examine 6-month-old infants' processing of multisensory stimulus compounds. The infants were first habituated with a compound stimulus consisting of a flashing checkerboard and a pulsing sound. To assess attention to aspects of the compound stimulus, the infants received separate test trials where compounds differed in the rate and/or duration at which the visual, the auditory, or both components were presented. One consistent finding was that the infants discriminated changes in the temporal characteristics of the auditory component but not in the visual component. Their responsiveness to the auditory information depended on the number of discriminative cues available during either the habituation or the test phases and on the temporal distinctiveness of the auditory and visual components during the habituation phase. This consistent failure to respond to changes in the visual component led to the conclusion that auditory dominance was operating. This conclusion was reinforced by the finding that the infants failed to discriminate a change in the rate of the visual component even when the intensity of the visual component was increased relative to that of the auditory component, and by the finding that the infants could discriminate temporal changes in the visual component following habituation with just the visual component. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
