An Integrated Perspective on Spatio-Temporal Attention and Infant Language Acquisition

Sofia Russo, Giulia Calignano, Marco Dispaldro and Eloisa Valenza
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Sofia Russo: Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
Giulia Calignano: Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
Marco Dispaldro: Regionale Beratungs- und Unterstützungszentren (ReBUZ), 28213 Bremen, Germany
Eloisa Valenza: Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Efficiency in the early ability to switch attention toward competing visual stimuli (spatial attention) may be linked to future ability to detect rapid acoustic changes in linguistic stimuli (temporal attention). To test this hypothesis, we compared individual performances in the same cohort of Italian-learning infants in two separate tasks: (i) an overlap task, measuring disengagement efficiency for visual stimuli at 4 months (Experiment 1), and (ii) an auditory discrimination task for trochaic syllabic sequences at 7 months (Experiment 2). Our results indicate that an infant’s efficiency in processing competing information in the visual field (i.e., visuospatial attention; Exp. 1) correlates with the subsequent ability to orient temporal attention toward relevant acoustic changes in the speech signal (i.e., temporal attention; Exp. 2). These results point out the involvement of domain-general attentional processes (not specific to language or the sensorial domain) playing a pivotal role in the development of early language skills in infancy.

Keywords: language acquisition; temporal attention; infancy; development; preverbal; overlap; auditory; longitudinal; speech; syllabic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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