How do human newborns come to understand the multimodal environment?
Arlette Streri1, Maria Dolores de Hevia2
1Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, F-75006, Paris, France.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|March 2, 2023
Summary
Newborns possess innate abilities to integrate sensory information, challenging the old view of them being passive learners. This sensory integration helps them perceive a stable world from birth.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- Historically, newborns were viewed as lacking perceptual skills, needing to learn about their environment.
- Recent research shows newborns have acquired perceptions triggered by environmental interaction.
- Fetal sensory development reveals all senses prepare in utero, except vision, which functions post-birth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how newborns, despite immature vision, understand a multimodal environment.
- To explore the interaction between visual, tactile, and auditory senses from birth.
- To review evidence on intersensory integration in human newborns.
Main Methods:
- Review of empirical evidence from developmental psychology and neuroscience.
- Analysis of studies on intermodal transfer (touch-vision, auditory-visual speech).
- Examination of research on links between spatial, temporal, and numerical dimensions.
Main Results:
- Newborns demonstrate perceptual abilities acquired through environmental contact.
- Evidence supports intermodal transfer and auditory-visual speech perception in newborns.
- Newborns show an innate drive to link sensory information, forming a stable world representation.
Conclusions:
- Human newborns are cognitively equipped to integrate multisensory information.
- This integration facilitates the development of a coherent perception of the world.
- Early sensory integration is crucial for navigating a complex environment.
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