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Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning

Rule learning is a mechanism that allows infants to recognize and generalize rule-like patterns, such as ABB or ABA. Although infants are better at learning rules from speech vs. non-speech, rule learning can be applied also to frequently experienced visual stimuli, suggesting that perceptual expert...

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Autores principales: Bulf, Hermann, Brenna, Viola, Valenza, Eloisa, Johnson, Scott P., Turati, Chiara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26539142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01595
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author Bulf, Hermann
Brenna, Viola
Valenza, Eloisa
Johnson, Scott P.
Turati, Chiara
author_facet Bulf, Hermann
Brenna, Viola
Valenza, Eloisa
Johnson, Scott P.
Turati, Chiara
author_sort Bulf, Hermann
collection PubMed
description Rule learning is a mechanism that allows infants to recognize and generalize rule-like patterns, such as ABB or ABA. Although infants are better at learning rules from speech vs. non-speech, rule learning can be applied also to frequently experienced visual stimuli, suggesting that perceptual expertise with material to be learned is critical in enhancing rule learning abilities. Yet infants’ rule learning has never been investigated using one of the most commonly experienced visual stimulus category available in infants’ environment, i.e., faces. Here, we investigate 7-month-olds’ ability to extract rule-like patterns from sequences composed of upright faces and compared their results to those of infants who viewed inverted faces, which presumably are encountered far less frequently than upright faces. Infants were habituated with face triads in either an ABA or ABB condition followed by a test phase with ABA and ABB triads composed of faces that differed from those showed during habituation. When upright faces were used, infants generalized the pattern presented during habituation to include the new face identities showed during testing, but when inverted faces were presented, infants failed to extract the rule. This finding supports the idea that perceptual expertise can modulate 7-month-olds’ abilities to detect rule-like patterns.
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spelling pubmed-46126502015-11-04 Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning Bulf, Hermann Brenna, Viola Valenza, Eloisa Johnson, Scott P. Turati, Chiara Front Psychol Psychology Rule learning is a mechanism that allows infants to recognize and generalize rule-like patterns, such as ABB or ABA. Although infants are better at learning rules from speech vs. non-speech, rule learning can be applied also to frequently experienced visual stimuli, suggesting that perceptual expertise with material to be learned is critical in enhancing rule learning abilities. Yet infants’ rule learning has never been investigated using one of the most commonly experienced visual stimulus category available in infants’ environment, i.e., faces. Here, we investigate 7-month-olds’ ability to extract rule-like patterns from sequences composed of upright faces and compared their results to those of infants who viewed inverted faces, which presumably are encountered far less frequently than upright faces. Infants were habituated with face triads in either an ABA or ABB condition followed by a test phase with ABA and ABB triads composed of faces that differed from those showed during habituation. When upright faces were used, infants generalized the pattern presented during habituation to include the new face identities showed during testing, but when inverted faces were presented, infants failed to extract the rule. This finding supports the idea that perceptual expertise can modulate 7-month-olds’ abilities to detect rule-like patterns. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4612650/ /pubmed/26539142 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01595 Text en Copyright © 2015 Bulf, Brenna, Valenza, Johnson and Turati. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bulf, Hermann
Brenna, Viola
Valenza, Eloisa
Johnson, Scott P.
Turati, Chiara
Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title_full Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title_fullStr Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title_full_unstemmed Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title_short Many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
title_sort many faces, one rule: the role of perceptual expertise in infants’ sequential rule learning
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26539142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01595
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