Poster #8 - The Effects of Masking on Infant Visual Scanning of Talking Faces

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Research on infant face processing has shown that as infants develop, they demonstrate shifts in their selective attention to different parts of a speaker’s face (Lewkowicz & Hansen-Tift, 2012; Pons et al., 2019). From 3 to 6 months of age, infants focus their selective attention on the eyes of a speaker, whereas at 8 to 10 months of age, infants focus selective attention more on the mouth of a speaker. At around 12 months of age, infants begin to shift selective attention back to the eyes when spoken to in their native language while continuing to focus more on the mouth when spoken to in a non-native language. These findings are believed to be tied to ongoing language development and reflect 12-month-olds’ increasing expertise and familiarity with their native language (Pons et al., 2019). Although school age children have been found to be less accurate in determining emotions of masked compared to unmasked faces (Ruba & Pollak, 2020), the impact of masking on early language development and infant selective attention to audiovisual speech remains largely unexplored. This ongoing study examines 6- and 12-month-old monolingual English-learning infants’ selective attention to native and non-native audiovisual speech produced by a masked or unmasked speaker. A 2x2x2 design is being utilized with a between-subjects factor of Age (6 months, 12 months), and within-subjects factors of Language (English, German) and Masking (Masked, Unmasked). The procedure is divided into two blocks (English, German) comprised of 50 second video clips of a female actress speaking without a mask and a 50 second video clip of the same female actress speaking while wearing a blue surgical mask. Order of presentation is counterbalanced for Language and Masking. Infant scanning patterns are measured using an EyeLink 1000 Plus eye-tracker (SR Research Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) with a 500 Hz sampling rate. A three-point calibration procedure is utilized before the onset of test blocks. Our analysis will focus on the distribution of infant selective attention across conditions by examining the proportion of visual fixation dwell time on facial Areas of Interest (AOI). AOIs for the analysis include the eyes and mouth regions of the face. The proportion of dwell time on each AOI out of the total looking time on the face will be utilized as a dependent variable. ANOVAs will be used to determine if the mask wearing trials are significantly different across both the native and non-native trials by age. When presented with unmasked speakers, we expect 6-month-olds to primarily focus on the eyes and 12-month-olds to focus comparatively more on the mouth of the speakers. We also expect 12-month-olds to focus on the mouth to a greater extent during non-native speech trials. When presented with masked speakers, we expect infants to focus selective attention on the eyes at both 6 and 12 months of age regardless of language. Findings will provide insight into the impact of masking on infant selective attention to audiovisual speech and may have implications for the potential impact of masking on early language development.

Authors

• Lauren Slivka, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  Presenting Author

• Kenna R. H. Clayton, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• Sarah Greene, University of Tennessee

• Greg D. Reynolds, University of Tennessee - Knoxville