Full-term and preterm infants' perception of face voice synchrony

Author(s): Field, T., Nawrocki, T., Martinez, A., Soutullo, D., Gonzalez, J.

Journal/Book: Infant Behav Develop. 1994; 17: 355 Chestnut St, Norwood, NJ 07648. Ablex Publ Corp. 447-455.

Abstract: This study investigated auditory-visual matching of faces and voices by preterm versus full-term infants at 3, 5, and 7 months of age. A total of 141 infants were tested using a two-screen preference procedure in which subjects were presented side-by-side videos of two females reciting nursery rhymes while a centrally presented voice soundtrack was synchronized with only one film. A significantly higher rate of visual fixation to the sound-matching films was observed in the full-term 3- and 7-month groups, but not at 5 months. Longitudinal testing confirmed the U-shaped developmental curve for full-term infants' task performance. In contrast to full terms, preterm infants did not display evidence of detecting face-voice synchrony. This suggests that an auditory-visual matching deficit may be associated with infant prematurity.

Note: Article J Pickens, James Madison Univ, Dept Psychol, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 USA

Keyword(s): infant; prematurity; perception; synchrony; cross-modal matching; INTERMODAL PERCEPTION; EVENTS

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