Infants' Bimodal Perception of Gender Article

Walker-Andrews, AS, Bahrick, LE, Raglioni, SS et al. (1991). Infants' Bimodal Perception of Gender . ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 3(2), 55-75. 10.1207/s15326969eco0302_1

cited authors

  • Walker-Andrews, AS; Bahrick, LE; Raglioni, SS; Diaz, I

authors

abstract

  • Two experiments were independently conducted in separate labs to determine whether infants are sensitive to intermodal information specifying gender across dynamic displays of faces and voices. In one study, 4- and 6-month-old infants were presented simultaneously with a single videotape of a male face and a female face accompanied by a single voice for two 2 min trials. In the second study 3 1/2 and 6 1/2 month olds were also presented videotapes of male and female faces accompanied by a single voice but for a series of short trials. Temporal synchrony between face and voice was controlled in both studies by presenting both male and female faces speaking in synchrony with a single soundtrack. In both experiments the 6 month olds showed evidence of matching faces and voices on the basis of gender. They significantly increased their looking to a face when the gender-appropriate voice was played. Four month olds gave evidence for matching the faces and voices based on gender information only on the second trial of Experiment 1, whereas the 3 1/2 month olds failed to show any preferential looking. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • January 1, 1991

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 55

end page

  • 75

volume

  • 3

issue

  • 2