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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Read my lips: Visual speech influences word processing in infants.

Drew Weatherhead¹, Katherine S White¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

|January 15, 2017

Summary

Infants can process familiar words better when the visual lip movements match the sounds. Visual articulatory information significantly aids infant word recognition, especially with mispronunciations.

Keywords:

Audiovisual speech perception Infant development Word recognition

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Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

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Published on: June 29, 2021

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Linguistics
Cognitive Science

Background:

Infants develop language by integrating auditory and visual cues.
Lip-reading, or speech perception, in infants is not fully understood.
The role of visual articulatory information in early word processing needs further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how infants process familiar words presented with visual articulatory information.
To determine if visual consistency of speech sounds affects infant word recognition.
To explore the contribution of visual versus auditory information in infant speech perception.

Main Methods:

Twelve-to-thirteen-month-old infants were presented with talking faces articulating familiar and unfamiliar words.
Experiments involved correctly pronounced words, visually consistent mispronunciations, and visually inconsistent mispronunciations.
Infants' differentiation between familiar and unfamiliar words was measured.
Auditory-only conditions were used to compare with visual-auditory perception.

Main Results:

Infants successfully differentiated familiar and unfamiliar words when presented with correct pronunciations or visually consistent mispronunciations.
Infants failed to differentiate words when presented with visually inconsistent mispronunciations.
Infants could detect mispronunciations in the visually consistent condition with auditory information alone.
Recognition of consistent mispronunciations was achieved with visual cues but not auditory cues alone.

Conclusions:

Visual articulatory information plays a crucial role in infant word processing.
Infants integrate visual speech information to aid word recognition, especially when auditory information is ambiguous or altered.
This study provides the first evidence for the impact of visual articulatory information on infant word recognition.