Developmental shifts in children’s sensitivity to visual speech: A new multimodal picture word task

摘要

This research developed a Multimodal Picture Word Task for assessing the influence of visual speech on phonological processing by100 children between 4 - 14 yrs of age. We assessed how manipulation of seemingly to-be-ignored auditory (A) and audiovisual (AV) phonological distractors affected picture naming without participants consciously trying to respond to the manipulation. Results varied in complex ways as a function of age and type and modality of distractors. Results for congruent AV distractors yielded an inverted U-shaped function with a significant influence of visual speech in 4-yr-olds and 10-14-yr-olds, but not in 5-9-yr-olds. In concert with dynamic systems theory, we proposed that the temporary loss of sensitivity to visual speech was reflecting reorganization of relevant knowledge and processing sub-systems, particularly phonology. We speculated that reorganization may be associated with 1) formal literacy instruction and 2) developmental changes in multimodal processing and auditory perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive skills.