The emergence of language-specific biases in visual attention in pre-reading toddlers from two cultures

Skilled adult readers show biases in their visual attention that reflect the direction of their native writing systems (e.g., English readers scan left-to-right while Hebrew readers scan right-to-left), but it not yet clear when these biases develop. We tested the hypothesis that language-specific patterns of behavior precede the ability to read by testing how toddlers (2.5-4 years) exposed to different writing systems allocated their attention in a picture naming task. Across two communities, children tended to name objects in the direction that matched their native language. Hebrew-learning toddlers labeled objects from right-to-left, while English- and Spanish-learning toddlers showed the reverse pattern, and language-specific tendencies strengthened with age. These results demonstrate that children have begun to discover directional regularities associated with their language even before they receive literacy instruction and illustrate how cultural conventions exert a direct influence on children's attention from a very young age.