Pedagogy theory (Csibra & Gergely, 2006; 2009) suggests that adults and infants comprise a co-evo... more Pedagogy theory (Csibra & Gergely, 2006; 2009) suggests that adults and infants comprise a co-evolved teaching-learning system. Adults spontaneously provide “ostensive cues” which function to engage infants’ attention and indicate a learning scenario. The current paper presents evidence that infant-directed action (“motionese”) and speech-action alignment (“acoustic packaging”) likely function as ostensive cues in the context of object-use demonstrations. Motionese has been documented in naturalistic learning scenarios and appears ubiquitous among adults, including nonparents. Further, infants attend more to motionese than to standard adult-directed action. On-going research is underway to evaluate the learning benefits (e.g., enhanced imitation) in the presence of these cues. Any information we can glean about the behavior of human adults (as natural teachers) and infants (as naive learners) supports attempts to model efficient learning in robots.
We investigated whether crawling versus noncrawling infants interpret an agent's movements ar... more We investigated whether crawling versus noncrawling infants interpret an agent's movements around an obstacle as goal‐directed. Infants (6–9 months) were habituated to a self‐propelled circle jumping over an obstacle to reach a goal. When the obstacle was removed, infants who crawled (n = 13) showed longer looking time to the familiar but now nonrational jumping path versus a novel but rational straight‐line path. Noncrawlers (n = 17) did not discriminate. Looking preference was independent of age and speed of habituation. These findings support the claim that infants’ processing of agency emerges early and applies to all agents, but stress the role of experience in the development of action interpretation.
Adults automatically adjust their speech and actions in a way that may facilitate infants’ proces... more Adults automatically adjust their speech and actions in a way that may facilitate infants’ processing (e.g., Brand, Baldwin, & Ashburn, 2002). This research examined whether mothers’ use of repetition for infants depended on whether the object being demonstrated required a series of actions in sequence in order to reach a salient goal (called an “enabling” sequence). Mothers (n = 39) demonstrated six objects, three with an enabling sequence and three with an arbitrary sequence, to their 6- to 8- or 11- to 13-month-olds. As predicted, in demonstrations of objects with an enabling sequence, mothers were more likely to repeat series of actions, whereas for those without such structure, mothers were more likely to repeat individual units of action. This may or may not have been deliberately pedagogical on mothers’ part, but nevertheless indicates another way in which input to infants is richly patterned to support their learning.
In two studies, we investigated infants’ preference for infant‐directed (ID) action or ‘motionese... more In two studies, we investigated infants’ preference for infant‐directed (ID) action or ‘motionese’ (Brand, Baldwin & Ashburn, 2002) relative to adult‐directed (AD) action. In Study 1, full‐featured videos were shown to 32 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds, who demonstrated a strong preference for ID action. In Study 2, infants at 6–8 months (n= 28) and 11–13 months (n= 24) were shown either standard ID and AD clips, or clips in which demonstrators’ faces were blurred to obscure emotional and eye‐gaze information. Across both ages, infants showed evidence of preferring ID to AD action, even when faces were blurred. Infants did not have a preference for still‐frame images of the demonstrators, indicating that the ID preference arose from action characteristics, not demonstrators’ general appearance. These results suggest that motionese enhances infants’ attention to action, possibly supporting infants’ learning.
We investigated the possibility that mothers modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that mi... more We investigated the possibility that mothers modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that might assist infants’ processing of human action. In a between‐subjects design, 51 mothers demonstrated the properties of five novel objects either to their infant (age 6–8 months or 11–13 months) or to an adult partner. As predicted, demonstrations to infants were higher in interactiveness, enthusiasm, proximity to partner, range of motion, repetitiveness and simplicity, indicating that mothers indeed modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that likely maintain infants’ attention and highlight the structure and meaning of action. The findings demonstrate that ‘motherese’ is broader in scope than previously recognized, including modifications to action as well as language.
In 2004, Christakis and colleagues published an influential paper claiming that early childhood t... more In 2004, Christakis and colleagues published an influential paper claiming that early childhood television exposure causes later attention problems (Christakis, Zimmerman, DiGiuseppe, & McCarty, 2004), which continues to be frequently promoted by the popular media. Using the same NLSY-79 dataset (n = 2,108), we conducted two multiverse analyses to examine whether the finding reported by Christakis et al. was robust to different analytic choices. We evaluated 848 models, including logistic regression as per the original paper, plus linear regression and two forms of propensity score analysis. Only 166 models (19.6%) yielded a statistically significant relationship between early TV exposure and later attention problems, with most of these employing problematic analytic choices. We conclude that these data do not provide compelling evidence of a harmful effect of TV on attention. All material necessary to reproduce our analysis is available online via Github (https://github.com/mcbeem/...
Pedagogy theory (Csibra & Gergely, 2006; 2009) suggests that adults and infants comprise a co-evo... more Pedagogy theory (Csibra & Gergely, 2006; 2009) suggests that adults and infants comprise a co-evolved teaching-learning system. Adults spontaneously provide “ostensive cues” which function to engage infants’ attention and indicate a learning scenario. The current paper presents evidence that infant-directed action (“motionese”) and speech-action alignment (“acoustic packaging”) likely function as ostensive cues in the context of object-use demonstrations. Motionese has been documented in naturalistic learning scenarios and appears ubiquitous among adults, including nonparents. Further, infants attend more to motionese than to standard adult-directed action. On-going research is underway to evaluate the learning benefits (e.g., enhanced imitation) in the presence of these cues. Any information we can glean about the behavior of human adults (as natural teachers) and infants (as naive learners) supports attempts to model efficient learning in robots.
We investigated whether crawling versus noncrawling infants interpret an agent's movements ar... more We investigated whether crawling versus noncrawling infants interpret an agent's movements around an obstacle as goal‐directed. Infants (6–9 months) were habituated to a self‐propelled circle jumping over an obstacle to reach a goal. When the obstacle was removed, infants who crawled (n = 13) showed longer looking time to the familiar but now nonrational jumping path versus a novel but rational straight‐line path. Noncrawlers (n = 17) did not discriminate. Looking preference was independent of age and speed of habituation. These findings support the claim that infants’ processing of agency emerges early and applies to all agents, but stress the role of experience in the development of action interpretation.
Adults automatically adjust their speech and actions in a way that may facilitate infants’ proces... more Adults automatically adjust their speech and actions in a way that may facilitate infants’ processing (e.g., Brand, Baldwin, & Ashburn, 2002). This research examined whether mothers’ use of repetition for infants depended on whether the object being demonstrated required a series of actions in sequence in order to reach a salient goal (called an “enabling” sequence). Mothers (n = 39) demonstrated six objects, three with an enabling sequence and three with an arbitrary sequence, to their 6- to 8- or 11- to 13-month-olds. As predicted, in demonstrations of objects with an enabling sequence, mothers were more likely to repeat series of actions, whereas for those without such structure, mothers were more likely to repeat individual units of action. This may or may not have been deliberately pedagogical on mothers’ part, but nevertheless indicates another way in which input to infants is richly patterned to support their learning.
In two studies, we investigated infants’ preference for infant‐directed (ID) action or ‘motionese... more In two studies, we investigated infants’ preference for infant‐directed (ID) action or ‘motionese’ (Brand, Baldwin & Ashburn, 2002) relative to adult‐directed (AD) action. In Study 1, full‐featured videos were shown to 32 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds, who demonstrated a strong preference for ID action. In Study 2, infants at 6–8 months (n= 28) and 11–13 months (n= 24) were shown either standard ID and AD clips, or clips in which demonstrators’ faces were blurred to obscure emotional and eye‐gaze information. Across both ages, infants showed evidence of preferring ID to AD action, even when faces were blurred. Infants did not have a preference for still‐frame images of the demonstrators, indicating that the ID preference arose from action characteristics, not demonstrators’ general appearance. These results suggest that motionese enhances infants’ attention to action, possibly supporting infants’ learning.
We investigated the possibility that mothers modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that mi... more We investigated the possibility that mothers modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that might assist infants’ processing of human action. In a between‐subjects design, 51 mothers demonstrated the properties of five novel objects either to their infant (age 6–8 months or 11–13 months) or to an adult partner. As predicted, demonstrations to infants were higher in interactiveness, enthusiasm, proximity to partner, range of motion, repetitiveness and simplicity, indicating that mothers indeed modify their infant‐directed actions in ways that likely maintain infants’ attention and highlight the structure and meaning of action. The findings demonstrate that ‘motherese’ is broader in scope than previously recognized, including modifications to action as well as language.
In 2004, Christakis and colleagues published an influential paper claiming that early childhood t... more In 2004, Christakis and colleagues published an influential paper claiming that early childhood television exposure causes later attention problems (Christakis, Zimmerman, DiGiuseppe, & McCarty, 2004), which continues to be frequently promoted by the popular media. Using the same NLSY-79 dataset (n = 2,108), we conducted two multiverse analyses to examine whether the finding reported by Christakis et al. was robust to different analytic choices. We evaluated 848 models, including logistic regression as per the original paper, plus linear regression and two forms of propensity score analysis. Only 166 models (19.6%) yielded a statistically significant relationship between early TV exposure and later attention problems, with most of these employing problematic analytic choices. We conclude that these data do not provide compelling evidence of a harmful effect of TV on attention. All material necessary to reproduce our analysis is available online via Github (https://github.com/mcbeem/...
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Papers by Rebecca Brand