Mismatching amodal redundancy inhibits operant learning in 5-month-old infants

The current study examined the functional role redundant amodal information plays in an operant learning task in 5-month-old human infants. Prior studies have suggested that both simple and complex learning processes (discrimination, associative conditioning) are facilitated when amodal information is presented redundantly across sensory modalities. These studies, however, did not test whether the amodal information had to be similar across modalities for facilitation to occur. The current study examined how both matching and mismatching redundant amodal information about the shape of an object would influence learning of an operant response in human infants. Infants learned an operant kick response to move a mobile of cylinders while either holding a cylinder, a rectangular cube, or no object. Kick rate served as the dependent measure. The results showed that infants given mismatching redundant amodal information (e.g., viewed cylinders while holding a rectangular cube) showed inhibited operant learning. These results extend the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis by demonstrating that amodal redundancy can function in some instances to inhibit complex learning processes.