From syllables to fluent speech, it is important for infants to quickly learn and decipher linguistic information. To do this, infants must not only use their auditory perception but also their visual perception to understand speech and language as a multisensory coherent event. Previous research by Lewkowicz and Hansen-Tift (2012) demonstrated that infants shift their allocation of visual attention from the eyes to the mouth of the speaker's face throughout development as they become interested in speech production. This project examined how infants, from 4-14-months of age, allocate their visual attention to increasingly complex speech tasks. In Experiment 1, infants were presented with upright and inverted faces vocalizing syllables and the results demonstrated that in response to the upright faces, 4-month-old infants attended to the eyes and 8- and 10-month-olds attended equally to the eyes and mouth. In response to the inverted face presentation, both the 4- and 10-month-olds attended equally to the eyes and mouth but the 8-month olds attended to the eyes. In Experiment 2, infants were presented with a phoneme matching task (Patterson & Werker, 1999, 2002, 2003) and the results demonstrated that the 4-month-old infants successfully matched the voice to the corresponding face, but that older infants did not. Measures of their selective attention to this task showed that the 4-month-old infants attended more to the eyes of the faces during the task, not attending to the redundant speech information at the mouth, but older infants attended equally to the eyes and mouth, although they did not match the voice to the face. Experiment 3 presented infants with a fluent speech matching task (Lewkowicz et al., 2015) which demonstrated that although the infants (12-14-months) did not systematically match the voice to the corresponding face, the infants attended more to the mouth region, which would have provided them with the neces sary redundant information. Overall, these studies demonstrate that there are developmental changes in how infants distribute their visual attention to faces as they learn about speech and that the complexity of the speech is a critical factor in how they allocate their visual attention. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Background: Maternal sensitivity, or high quality maternal caregiving, in which the mother leads and structures the infant’s early experiences in a responsive way, is associated with improved child development outcomes and health, both in the immediate and long term, and thus an important area of public health research. Although previous research has established that exposure to high maternal sensitivity advances the outcome of infant cognitive development, factors such as breastfeeding, which is hypothesized to confound the association, or depression, which is negatively associated with sensitivity, have not yet been examined together in a single study. Maternal alcohol use, associated with both breastfeeding and depression, has not been examined in any study investigating the sensitivity-cognitive development association. The majority of infant studies examining the maternal sensitivity-infant cognition association include either normal birth weight infants or LBW infant samples. Using the LBW category may result in potential misclassification since this group combines at least two different phenomena and includes infants who have had either compromised gestational time as in the case of small for gestational age (SGA), or insufficient gestational time, as in the case of premature birth, or both. In studies using comparison groups, normal birth weight infants are sometimes compared to LBW infants or infants born prematurely. However, none of these studies examine the association between sensitivity and cognitive outcome in infants exclusively premature or SGA. Aim: This study investigates the association of several factors: (1) maternal depressive symptomology, (2) breastfeeding, (3) concurrent maternal alcohol intake and (4) infant biological vulnerability upon outcomes of (1) Maternal Sensitivity and (2) Infant Cognitive Development, as well as their effect on the association between senstivity and cognitive development. Methods: Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth (ECLS-B) Cohort, a nationally representative sample of U.S. born children, depressive symptomology was evaluated as an effect-modifier, and breastfeeding was evaluated as a confounder of the sensitivity-cognitive development association. Maternal alcohol use and biological vulnerability were also hypothesized to be confounders of the sensitivity-cognitive association. Univariate and multi-variable regression analyses were used to examine whether the four maternal factors were associated with Maternal Sensitivity, measured by the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCATS), and with Cognitive Development, measured by the Bayley Scale of Infant Development, Research Edition (BSF-R). Results: In univariate analyses, breastfeeding, depressive symptomology and alcohol use were associated with maternal sensitivity but only breastfeeding and depressive symptomology were associated with Cognitive Development In a final model examining the effect of sensitivity, depressive symptomology and breastfeeding upon the outcome of Cognitive Development, sensitivity (β =.375, p<.001) remained significantly associated with cognitive development after adjusting for breastfeeding (β =1.592, p<.001), depressive symptomology (β =-.061), p<.05), demographic factors and birthweight (R2=.053, p<.001). Depressive symptomology was not an effect modifier of the sensitivity-cognitive developmental association. Univariate regression analyses showed that of the measures of biological vulnerability, premature birth had the greatest association with both sensitivity and cognitive development in comparison to the LBW or SGA. In a multivariate regression model in which maternal sensitivity as an outcome, premature birth (β= -.524***) was associated with maternal sensitivity (R2=.100, p<.001), after adjusting for maternal depression and breastfeeding. In a multivariate regression model analysing the effect premature birth and maternal factors, including sensitivity in which cognitive development was the outcome, maternal sensitivity (β=.369, p<.001) and breastfeeding (β=1.567, p<.001) were positively associated with infant cognitive development, while premature birth (β= -2.949, p<.001) was negatively associated (R2=.049, p<.001). Conclusion: This research demonstrates that an independent association between maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive development remains even after adjusting for breastfeeding, and that breastfeeding is a separate means to advancing infant cognitive development. Premature birth, rather than SGA drove the negative association between low birth weight and cognitive development. Future research should look at the effects of premature birth separately from SGA when examining developmental outcomes. Keywords: Maternal Sensitivity, Parenting, Cognitive Development, Breastfeeding, Maternal Depression, Premature Birth, Small for Gestational Age, Low Birth Weight

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

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This field study of two-year-old children using art materials in a preschool setting was concerned with how children constructed meaning about the art-making process through their interactions with others. The study was theoretically grounded in the work of George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and Lev Vygotsky, who share a common view that meaning is socially constructed through interpersonal interactions. The study focused on children’s early use of art media and their social interaction as a significant factor in their artistic expression. Monthly videotaped and written observations documented four 2-year-aids’ participation with art media during their attendance at weekly parent-2-year old program. Over two subsequent years, the data were expanded to include observations of additional 2- year-aids, and parent and teacher interviews. Observations in a 3 and 4-year-old classroom coupled with extensive teacher interviews provided insights into teachers’ assumptions and values which guided their interactions. Observations of the 2-year-olds were coded into art episodes, and analyzed in terms of behaviours, interactions, and values. Based on Vygotsky’s idea that children’s shift from biological development to higher cognitive functioning occurs through interpersonal interaction, children’s exploratory use of materials was described. Analysis of their explorations revealed that intentionality and visual interest were crucial components in their art experiences. Analysis suggested that children as young as 2 years possess aesthetic sensitivity. There did not appear to be any single factor that could account for children’s selection or placement of colors or marks on a piece of paper. Social interactions around art-making occurred within spatial-temporal frames which contributed to the way the art-making context was defined by the participants. Through interpretations derived from interactions with peers and adults, children constructed understanding about cultural values for work, production, ownership, and neatness. They learned little about art skills or the relationship of their art-making experiences to art in the adult world. The study concludes with presentation of an interactionist model of children’s artistic expression which describes the dialectical relationship between biological development and social interaction. The model eliminates the need to debate issues around innate or cultural origins of children’s visual expression, through its inclusion of biological and social components. Using the interactionist model and Vygotsky’s notion of scaffolding can help teachers address conflicts surrounding the definition of developmentally appropriate art education for young children.

This field study of two-year-old children using art materials in a preschool setting was concerned with how children constructed meaning about the art-making process through their interactions with others. The study was theoretically grounded in the work of George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and Lev Vygotsky, who share a common view that meaning is socially constructed through interpersonal interactions. The study focused on children’s early use of art media and their social interaction as a significant factor in their artistic expression. Monthly videotaped and written observations documented four 2-year-aids’ participation with art media during their attendance at weekly parent-2-year old program. Over two subsequent years, the data were expanded to include observations of additional 2- year-aids, and parent and teacher interviews. Observations in a 3 and 4-year-old classroom coupled with extensive teacher interviews provided insights into teachers’ assumptions and values which guided their interactions. Observations of the 2-year-olds were coded into art episodes, and analyzed in terms of behaviours, interactions, and values. Based on Vygotsky’s idea that children’s shift from biological development to higher cognitive functioning occurs through interpersonal interaction, children’s exploratory use of materials was described. Analysis of their explorations revealed that intentionality and visual interest were crucial components in their art experiences. Analysis suggested that children as young as 2 years possess aesthetic sensitivity. There did not appear to be any single factor that could account for children’s selection or placement of colors or marks on a piece of paper. Social interactions around art-making occurred within spatial-temporal frames which contributed to the way the art-making context was defined by the participants. Through interpretations derived from interactions with peers and adults, children constructed understanding about cultural values for work, production, ownership, and neatness. They learned little about art skills or the relationship of their art-making experiences to art in the adult world. The study concludes with presentation of an interactionist model of children’s artistic expression which describes the dialectical relationship between biological development and social interaction. The model eliminates the need to debate issues around innate or cultural origins of children’s visual expression, through its inclusion of biological and social components. Using the interactionist model and Vygotsky’s notion of scaffolding can help teachers address conflicts surrounding the definition of developmentally appropriate art education for young children. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate