Showing papers by "Andrew N. Meltzoff published in 1995"

Understanding the Intentions of Others: Re-Enactment of Intended Acts by 18-Month-Old Children.

Abstract: Investigated was whether children would re-enact what an adult actually did or what the adult intended to do. In Experiment 1 children were shown an adult who tried, but failed, to perform certain target acts. Completed target acts were thus not observed. Children in comparison groups either saw the full target act or appropriate controls. Results showed that children could infer the adult's intended act by watching the failed attempts. Experiment 2 tested children's understanding of an inanimate object that traced the same movements as the person had followed. Children showed a completely different reaction to the mechanical device than to the person: They did not produce the target acts in this case. Eighteen-month-olds situate people within a psychological framework that differentiates between the surface behavior of people and a deeper level involving goals and intentions. They have already adopted a fundamental aspect of folk psychology-persons (but not inanimate objects) are understood within a framework involving goals and intentions.

Memory and representation in young children with Down syndrome: Exploring deferred imitation and object permanence.

Abstract: Deferred imitation and object permanence (OP) were tested in 48 young children with Down syndrome (DS), ranging from 20 to 43 months of age. Deferred imitation and high-level OP (invisible displacements) have long been held to be synchronous developments during sensory-motor "Stage 6" (18-24 months of age in unimpaired children). The results of the current study demonstrate deferred imitation in young children with DS, showing they can learn novel behaviors from observation and retain multiple models in memory. This is the first demonstration of deferred imitation in young children with DS. The average OP level passed in this sample was A-not-B, a task passed at 8-12 months of age in normally developing infants. Analyses showed that individual children who failed high-level OP (invisible displacements) could still perform deferred imitation. This indicates that deferred imitation and OP invisible displacements are not synchronous developments in children with DS. This asynchrony is compatible with new data from unimpaired children suggesting that deferred imitation and high-level OP entail separate and distinctive kinds of memory and representation.

A comparison between cerebral‐palsied and normal adults in the perception of auditory‐visual illusions

Abstract: Listeners obtain information about speech both from listening to a talker and by using visual cues from the talker’s face. As demonstrated in the McGurk effect, conflicting auditory and visual cues produce illusions. The present experiment investigated whether lack of experience with normal speech production affects the perception of auditory‐visual illusions. Adults with cerebral palsy (CP) who have been severely dysarthric since birth were compared to normally speaking adults on two types of illusions: (1) auditory /aba/ paired with visual /aga/ which typically produces a /da/ illusion; and (2) auditory /aga/ paired with visual /aba/ which typically produces a /bga/ illusion. The number of illusory responses was compared for each group. There was no difference between groups in the number of /da/ illusions. However, adults with CP perceived fewer /bga/ illusions than normal adults. These results suggest that lack of experience articulating speech inhibits a listener’s ability to perceive unusual English phoneme clusters like /bga/. [Research supported by NICHD.]

Investigating the role of specific facial information in audio‐visual speech perception

Abstract: When hearing and seeing a person speak, people receive both auditory and visual speech information. The contribution made by visual speech information has been demonstrated in a wide variety of conditions, most clearly when conflicting auditory and visual information is presented. In this study an investigation was performed to determine which aspects of the face most strongly influence audio‐visual speech perception. The visual stimulus was manipulated using special effects techniques to isolate three specific ‘‘articulatory parts:’’ lips only, oral cavity only, or jaw only. These ‘‘parts’’ and their combinations were dubbed with auditory tokens to create ‘‘fusion’’ stimuli (A/aba/ + V/aga/) and ‘‘combination’’ stimuli (A/aga/ + V/aba/). Results indicated that visual information from jaw‐only movements was not sufficient to induce illusory effects. However, for the combination condition, seeing moving lips or the inside of the speaker’s mouth produced substantial audio‐visual effects. Additional visual i...