Distinguishing novelty and familiarity effects in infant preference procedures

Abstract

This paper considers possible problems researchers might face when interpreting the results of studies that employ variants of the preference procedure. Infants show a tendency to shift their preference from familiar to novel stimuli with increasing exposure to the familiar stimulus, a behaviour that is exploited by the habituation paradigm. This change in attentional preference with exposure leads us to suggest that researchers interested in infants' pre-experimental or spontaneous preferences should beware of the potentially confounding effects of exposing infants to familiarization trials prior to employing the preference procedure. The notion that infant attentional preference is dynamic also calls into question the use of the direction of post-familiarization preference per se when interpreting the knowledge or strategies available to infants. We look into the results of a cross-modal word learning study to show how the interpretation of results may be difficult when infants exhibit a significant preference in an unexpected direction. As a possible solution to this problem we propose that significant preferences in both directions should be sought at multiple intervals over time.

Exploring early developmental changes in face scanning patterns during the perception of audiovisual mismatch of speech cues

“…For example, it is known that the same amount of familiarization can result in different looking behaviour by infants of different ages: the older the infant, the more quickly they will develop a novelty preference (Houston-Price & Nakai, 2004). …”

<i>Gastrodia elata</i> modulates amyloid precursor protein cleavage and cognitive functions in mice

“…However, there are instances where preference for novelty is supplanted by preference for familiarity. For instance, there is a growing experimental evidence showing preference for familiarity in young and old infants (20,21). A reduced preference for a novel 133 object can be accounted for by the physical properties of the novel object which may not require too much attention or by some affective attributes invested into the familiar object.…”

The native language of social cognition

“…Although infants' looking time preferences to familiar vs. novel displays may vary based on factors such as complexity and duration of exposure (12)(13)(14)(15), often young infants demonstrate a preference for the visually familiar, such as for their mother's face, a familiar-race face, or a face of the primary caregiver's gender (16)(17)(18). Building on these findings, we asked whether infants and young children show visual and social preferences for speakers of their native language.…”