Visual Language Discrimination in Infancy
Whitney M. Weikum,1*
Athena Vouloumanos,2
Jordi Navarra,3,4
Salvador Soto-Faraco,4,5
Núria Sebastián-Gallés,4
Janet F. Werker1
This study shows that 4- and 6-month-old infants can discriminate languages (English from French) just from viewing silently presented articulations. By the age of 8 months, only bilingual (French-English) infants succeed at this task. These findings reveal a surprisingly early preparedness for visual language discrimination and highlight infants' selectivity for retaining only necessary perceptual sensitivities.
1 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
2 McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada.
3 Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
4 Parc Científic de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
5 Institut Catatlà de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: whitney{at}psych.ubc.ca
