Newborns are sensitive to the correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation

Walker, Peter and Bremner, James Gavin and Lunghi, Marco and Dolscheid, Sarah and Dalla Barba, Beatrice and Simion, Francesca (2018) Newborns are sensitive to the correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation. Developmental Psychobiology, 60 (2). pp. 216-223. ISSN 0012-1630

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Abstract

Amodal (redundant) and arbitrary cross-sensory feature associations involve the context-insensitive mapping of absolute feature values across sensory domains. Cross-sensory associations of a different kind, known as correspondences, involve the context-sensitive mapping of relative feature values. Are such correspondences in place at birth (like amodal associations), or are they learned from subsequently experiencing relevant feature co-occurrences in the world (like arbitrary associations)? To decide between these two possibilities, human newborns (median age=44hr) watched animations in which two balls alternately rose and fell together in space. The pitch of an accompanying sound rose and fell either congruently with this visual change (pitch rising and falling as the balls moved up and down), or incongruently (pitch rising and falling as the balls moved down and up). Newborns' looking behavior was sensitive to this congruence, providing the strongest indication to date that cross-sensory correspondences can be in place at birth.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Developmental Psychobiology
Additional Information:
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Walker P, Bremner JG, Lunghi M, Dolscheid S, D. Barba B, Simion F. Newborns are sensitive to the correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation. Developmental Psychobiology. 2018;60:216–223. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21603 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dev.21603/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300/1309
Subjects:
?? cross-sensory correspondencesamodal and arbitrary mappingsneonatal perceptionpitch-elevation mappingdevelopmental biologybehavioral neurosciencedevelopmental neurosciencedevelopmental and educational psychology ??
ID Code:
88964
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
09 Jan 2018 10:14
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jan 2024 00:14