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Updated: Jul 12, 2025

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Formal theories clarify the complex: Generalizing a neural process account of the interaction of visual exploration
Ajaz A Bhat1, Larissa K Samuelson2, John P Spencer2
1School of Digital Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam.
Abstract:
The interaction of visual exploration and auditory processing is central to early cognitive development, supporting object discrimination, categorization, and word learning. Research has shown visual-auditory interactions to be complex, created from multiple processes and changing over multiple timescales. To better understand these interactions, we generalize a formal neural process model of early word learning to two studies examining how words impact 9- to 22-month-olds' attention to novelty. These simulations clarify the origin and nature of previously demonstrated effects of labels on visual exploration and the basis of mutual exclusivity effects in word learning. We use our findings to discuss key questions for this special section: what makes a good theory and how should formal theories interface with empirical paradigms and findings?
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