Cross Modal Transfer in Infancy : Transfer from Touch to Vision
Hee Young Hong
Abstract
The purpose of the present research was to investigate cross-modal transfer, especially tactual-to-visual transfer in infancy and to study the relation between failure of cross-modal transfer performance and length of familiarization period. The subjects of this study were 60 infants, 10 boys and 10 girls at each level: six, nine, and twelve months of age. All were normal, healthy, full-term babies. The mothers` educational achievement was controlled at more than 12 years of schooling. There were two separate experimental conditions, one 30-sec and one 60-sec familiarization period. Each experimental condition consisted of a tactual familiarization and a visual recognition memory test. Each child was presented with these 2 sets of cross-modal stimuli in one of the 2 experimental conditions. Infants` visual responses in the visual recognition memory test were videotaped for 20 seconds. Visual fixation time to novel and familiar stimuli was observed throughout the test. The data was analyzed with t-test, percentage of total fixation time to novel stimuli, and ANOVA. The results showed that: 1) Significant differences were found in the cross-modal transfer performance from touch to vision between the 3 age groups. This is, 6 and 9 month old infants didn`t show cross-modal transfer in the 30-sec condition, but 12 month old infants did show cross-modal transfer in the 30-second. 2) In all 3 age groups, no significant differences were found in cross-modal transfer performance between the two conditions.
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