The development of gaze following in monolingual and bilingual infants: A multi‐laboratory study

Determining the meanings of words requires language learners to attend to what other people say. However, it behooves a young language learner to simultaneously encode relevant non‐verbal cues, for example, by following the direction of their eye gaze. Sensitivity to cues such as eye gaze might be p...

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Published inInfancy Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 4 - 38
Main Authors Byers‐Heinlein, Krista, Tsui, Rachel Ka‐Ying, van Renswoude, Daan, Black, Alexis K., Barr, Rachel, Brown, Anna, Colomer, Marc, Durrant, Samantha, Gampe, Anja, Gonzalez‐Gomez, Nayeli, Hay, Jessica F., Hernik, Mikołaj, Jartó, Marianna, Kovács, Ágnes Melinda, Laoun‐Rubenstein, Alexandra, Lew‐Williams, Casey, Liszkowski, Ulf, Liu, Liquan, Noble, Claire, Potter, Christine E., Rocha‐Hidalgo, Joscelin, Sebastian‐Galles, Nuria, Soderstrom, Melanie, Visser, Ingmar, Waddell, Connor, Wermelinger, Stephanie, Singh, Leher
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2021
Subjects
Bilingualism
Child Development - physiology
Eye Movements - physiology
Eye-Tracking Technology
Female
Fixation, Ocular - physiology
Humans
Infant
Laboratories
Language Development
Male
Monolingualism
Multilingualism
Social Perception
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Children
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1525-0008
1532-7078
1532-7078
DOI10.1111/infa.12360

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Summary:Determining the meanings of words requires language learners to attend to what other people say. However, it behooves a young language learner to simultaneously encode relevant non‐verbal cues, for example, by following the direction of their eye gaze. Sensitivity to cues such as eye gaze might be particularly important for bilingual infants, as they encounter less consistency between words and objects than monolingual infants, and do not always have access to the same word‐learning heuristics (e.g., mutual exclusivity). In a preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that bilingual experience would lead to a more pronounced ability to follow another's gaze. We used a gaze‐following paradigm developed by Senju and Csibra (Current Biology, 18, 2008, 668) to test a total of 93 6‐ to 9‐month‐old and 229 12‐ to 15‐month‐old monolingual and bilingual infants, in 11 laboratories located in 8 countries. Monolingual and bilingual infants showed similar gaze‐following abilities, and both groups showed age‐related improvements in speed, accuracy, frequency, and duration of fixations to congruent objects. Unexpectedly, bilinguals tended to make more frequent fixations to on‐screen objects, whether or not they were cued by the actor. These results suggest that gaze sensitivity is a fundamental aspect of development that is robust to variation in language exposure.
Bibliography:FUNDING INFORMATION
Individual participating laboratories acknowledge funding support from: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (402470‐2011; 2018‐04390); the National Science Foundation (BCS‐1551719); the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC ES/L008955/1); the European Research Council Advanced Grant, UNDER CONTROL (323961); the European Research Council Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant (798658); the Leverhulme Trust (ECF‐2015‐009); the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD083312); the European Research Council Synergy Grant (SOMICS 609819); the Early Career Research Grant & Start‐up Grant, Western Sydney University; Research Manitoba, University of Manitoba, Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; and the ODPRT funds, National University of Singapore.
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ISSN:1525-0008
1532-7078
1532-7078
DOI:10.1111/infa.12360