Name:Anh

School/Affiliation:McMaster Baby Lab, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON

Co-Authors:Daniel Lee, Anagha Vinod, Daniel Cameron, Naiqi G. Xiao

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

As an older sibling, I gained firsthand insight into how environmental influences profoundly impact the early perceptual and cognitive growth of infants. I love interacting with children, and I'm interested in learning about neurodevelopment within an increasingly interconnected and stimulating world. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, playing piano, and spending time with family and friends.

Abstract:

The use of rhythmic stimuli and temporal patterns to guide attention is fundamental to language acquisition and social development. Both newborns and adults demonstrate sensitivity to temporal regularity, suggesting an underlying expectation for the onset of rhythmic cycles. While research shows that attention is preferentially allocated to metrically strong rhythms, it remains uncertain whether infants prefer the temporal regularity of rhythmic stimuli over the temporal unpredictability of non-rhythmic stimuli. We investigated whether this attentional bias is present in infants. We conducted eye-tracking experiments using EyeLink 1000 Plus and recorded gaze patterns during presentation of audiovisual stimuli to infants (n = 34; 6-15 months). Infants viewed still images of commonplace objects, such as a baby bottle, while either rhythmic or non-rhythmic auditory stimuli played from a speaker positioned behind the attention getters on the screen. Infants listened to audio sequences that either elicited a sense of beat (Beat condition) or sequences containing temporally random structure (Non-Beat condition). Parents also completed questionnaires assessing infants’ exposure to rhythmic and non-rhythmic stimuli and family musical background. We would examine whether infants’ age, home environment, and parental factors modulate their preferences for rhythmic stimuli. We expect that rhythmic sequences would elicit longer fixation and earlier gaze shift to the still image than non-rhythmic sequences, suggesting attentional bias for temporally regular stimuli. Such findings would suggest the early developmental emergence of a preference for rhythmic regularity, underscoring the importance of rhythm in infants' language and social development.