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Covering the Eyes or Mouth of a Speaker Does Not Prevent Word Learning in Typically Developing Infants.

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Title: Covering the Eyes or Mouth of a Speaker Does Not Prevent Word Learning in Typically Developing Infants.
Authors: Birulés, Joan1,2 (AUTHOR) joanbirules@gmail.com, Pascalis, Olivier1 (AUTHOR), Méary, David1 (AUTHOR), Fort, Mathilde1,3 (AUTHOR)
Source: Developmental Psychology. May2026, Vol. 62 Issue 5, p1012-1024. 13p.
Subject Terms: *School environment, *Infant psychology, *Learning strategies, *Vocabulary, *Language acquisition, Research funding, Descriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, Linguistics, Attention in children, Confidence intervals, Data analysis software, Video recording
Abstract: Infant gaze-following skills and selective attention to the mouth of talking faces during their first year correlate with their vocabulary growth in their second year. This correlational evidence has led to the hypothesis that these attentional strategies are key mechanisms supporting word acquisition, a process which drastically improves during toddlerhood. If so, covering the eyes or mouth region of a talking face that teaches toddlers novel word–object associations should disrupt or diminish their word learning performance. To test this relationship causally, we recorded eye gaze in 17- to 42-month-old toddlers (N = 153) while performing an audiovisual fast-mapping task in one of three conditions: (a) full face, where the speaker's face was fully visible; (b) glasses, where the eye region was covered with black opaque glasses; and (c) mask, where the mouth and nose were covered with a black surgical mask. The results showed that toddlers aged 24 months and above learned the new word–object associations and, crucially, that they did so independently of condition. Moreover, correlational evidence showed that word learning performance related with toddlers' gaze-following behavior (i.e., target-object looking and face-target shifts) but not with attention to the eyes or mouth. These findings suggest that the capacity for object word–form association from a quick audiovisual interaction emerges around 24 months and that toddlers' optimal attentional strategy at this stage involves social understanding and object exploration rather than focusing on speakers' eyes or mouth. The implications of these results are discussed, particularly in the context of naturalistic vocabulary learning environments. Public Significance Statement: Our study reveals that toddlers can learn new words even when the speaker's eyes or mouth are covered. Interestingly, we found that word learning is associated with gaze-following behaviors like target-object looking and face-target shifts, but not with eyes or mouth looking. This highlights the importance of social referencing and/or attentional control rather than facial cues in natural word learning environments, during the second year of life and after. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Infant gaze-following skills and selective attention to the mouth of talking faces during their first year correlate with their vocabulary growth in their second year. This correlational evidence has led to the hypothesis that these attentional strategies are key mechanisms supporting word acquisition, a process which drastically improves during toddlerhood. If so, covering the eyes or mouth region of a talking face that teaches toddlers novel word–object associations should disrupt or diminish their word learning performance. To test this relationship causally, we recorded eye gaze in 17- to 42-month-old toddlers (N = 153) while performing an audiovisual fast-mapping task in one of three conditions: (a) full face, where the speaker's face was fully visible; (b) glasses, where the eye region was covered with black opaque glasses; and (c) mask, where the mouth and nose were covered with a black surgical mask. The results showed that toddlers aged 24 months and above learned the new word–object associations and, crucially, that they did so independently of condition. Moreover, correlational evidence showed that word learning performance related with toddlers' gaze-following behavior (i.e., target-object looking and face-target shifts) but not with attention to the eyes or mouth. These findings suggest that the capacity for object word–form association from a quick audiovisual interaction emerges around 24 months and that toddlers' optimal attentional strategy at this stage involves social understanding and object exploration rather than focusing on speakers' eyes or mouth. The implications of these results are discussed, particularly in the context of naturalistic vocabulary learning environments. Public Significance Statement: Our study reveals that toddlers can learn new words even when the speaker's eyes or mouth are covered. Interestingly, we found that word learning is associated with gaze-following behaviors like target-object looking and face-target shifts, but not with eyes or mouth looking. This highlights the importance of social referencing and/or attentional control rather than facial cues in natural word learning environments, during the second year of life and after. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:00121649
DOI:10.1037/dev0002016