Multisensory Integration Correlates with Maternal Attention Facilitation, and Both Predict Vocabulary in Toddlers

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Abstract

As infants develop, they become proficient perceivers of multimodal events, even amid distractions (e.g., background noise, television). In fact, their attention is often directed and maintained by events that are high in ‘intersensory redundancy’ - coordinated, co-specified, synchronous properties across modalities. Recently, we found that 2-year-olds who attended more to an auditory-visual matched event in the presence of a distractor had higher expressive vocabularies (Bruce, Panneton, & Taylor, under review). Importantly, this relationship only held when toddlers matched a face+voice, but not an object+sound event. We further explored this link between social multisensory integration and language by analyzing additional contributions from parenting. Specifically, we calculated maternal sensitivity from a mother+child free play episode, and analyzed whether aspects of maternal sensitivity were related to multisensory integration and word learning.
Thirty-two toddlers ages 22-27 months (female=18, M=23.57 mo, SD=1.30) watched short clips of objects dropping into containers with sound (non-social condition) or women telling stories (social condition). Each trial included a central distractor between the two lateral events. Multisensory Integration (MSI) was calculated as (attention to match)/(attention to match+attention to distractor). Maternal sensitivity was scored from a 10 min free play, on four subscales: attention facilitation, intrusiveness, positive affect, and negative affect. Here, we present analyses only on attention facilitation (ATTFal). Mothers also completed MCDI for their toddlers’ expressive vocabulary scores.
No significant correlations were found between MSI, ATTFal, and MCDI for non-social trials. For social trials, significant correlations were found between MSI and MCDI (r= +.59, p =.001), MSI and ATTFal (r= +.35, p=.05), and ATTFal and MCDI (r= .45, p =.01). A linear regression predicting MCDI with MSI and ATTFal as factors produced a significant model (R2= .39 F(30, 2) = 8.93, p = .001) and explained 35% of the variance. Both MSI (β = .45, p=.008) and ATTFal (β = .32, p=.05) significantly predicted expressive vocabulary.
The ability of two-year-olds to maintain focus on a speaking adult under other demands for attention predicts their vocabulary, and this ability seems positively influenced by mothers who are competent at facilitating the attention of their toddlers during play. This maternal attention facilitation also promotes good word learning. Interestingly, this integrative relationship does not emerge when toddlers are attending to AV non-social objects (compared to AV women speaking), so it may be extended experiences in face to face play that shape and guide multisensory integration skills, and recruits them in the service of language learning.

Authors

• Caroline Taylor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Presenting Author

• Robin K Panneton, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Madeleine Diane Bruce, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author