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Updated: Jan 13, 2026
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Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
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Can Infants Perceive and Learn New Information from Extended Reality?
Liquan Liu1,2,3,4,5, Brayden Condie2, Jasmine Sutton1,2
1Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Developmental Science
|January 6, 2026
Summary
Extended reality (XR) environments effectively support infant learning and perception. Older infants showed robust discrimination in XR, and all infants learned equally well across live and XR conditions, highlighting XR's potential for early language development.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Technology
Background:
- Global adoption of digital tech necessitates integration into early childhood education for sustainable development goals.
- Extended reality (XR) offers novel environments for infant learning and perception research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of XR environments in supporting infants' perception and learning capabilities.
- To compare infant performance in live, XR-live, and XR-recorded conditions for non-native tone discrimination and object-label association.
Main Methods:
- 144 Australian infants (6-12 and 18-24 months) participated in three conditions: Live, XR-Live, and XR-Recorded.
- Infants were tested on discriminating non-native Mandarin tones and learning object-label associations.
- Perception and learning outcomes were analyzed based on age and condition.
Main Results:
- Infants successfully discriminated non-native tones, with older infants showing robust discrimination in both XR conditions.
- Infants learned object-label associations equally well in Live and XR conditions.
- Older infants outperformed younger infants, especially in learning acoustically complex tones.
Conclusions:
- XR environments effectively support infants' cognitive and linguistic development, comparable to live interactions.
- Findings underscore XR's potential for integration into early educational and developmental interventions.
- Age and tone complexity significantly influence infant perception and learning outcomes in XR.
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