| Publications [#42881] of Kerry E Jordan
search PubMed.Journal Articles
- Jordan, K.E., & Brannon, E.M. (2006). The multisensory representation of number in infancy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 3486-3489. [pdf]
(last updated on 2006/03/28)
Abstract: Human infants can discriminate visual and
auditory stimuli solely on the basis of
number, suggesting a developmental
foundation for the nonverbal number
representations of adult humans. Recent
studies suggest that these language-
independent number representations are
multisensory in both adult humans and
nonhuman animals. Surprisingly, however,
previous studies have yielded mixed evidence
concerning whether nonverbal numerical
representations independent of sensory
modality are present early in human
development. In this article, we use a
paradigm that avoids stimulus confounds
present in previous studies of cross-modal
numerical mapping in infants. We show that 7-
month-old infants preferentially attend to
visual displays of adult humans that
numerically match the number of adult humans
they hear speaking. These data provide
evidence that by 7 months of age, infants
connect numerical representations across
different sensory modalities when presented
with human faces and voices. Results support
the possibility of a shared system between
preverbal infants and nonverbal animals for
representing number.
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