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A Mechanistic Approach To Cross-Domain Perceptual Narrowing In The First Year Of Life, Hillary Hadley, Gwyneth C. Rost, Eswen Fava, Lisa S. Scott

Communication Disorders Department Faculty Publication Series

Language and face processing develop in similar ways during the first year of life. Early in the first year of life, infants demonstrate broad abilities for discriminating among faces and speech. These discrimination abilities then become tuned to frequently experienced groups of people or languages. This process of perceptual development occurs between approximately 6 and 12 months of age and is largely shaped by experience. However, the mechanisms underlying perceptual development during this time, and whether they are shared across domains, remain largely unknown. Here, we highlight research findings across domains and propose a top-down/bottom-up processing approach as a guide …