Infants' preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information
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Infants' preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information. / Begus, Katarina; Gliga, Teodora; Southgate, Victoria.
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 113, No. 44, 01.11.2016, p. 12397-12402.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Infants' preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information
AU - Begus, Katarina
AU - Gliga, Teodora
AU - Southgate, Victoria
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - Humans' preference for others who share our group membership is well documented, and this heightened valuation of in-group members seems to be rooted in early development. Before 12 mo of age, infants already show behavioral preferences for others who evidence cues to same-group membership such as race or native language, yet the function of this selectivity remains unclear. We examine one of these social biases, the preference for native speakers, and propose that this preference may result from infants' motivation to obtain information and the expectation that interactions with native speakers will provide better opportunities for learning. To investigate this hypothesis, we measured EEG theta activity, a neural rhythm shown to index active and selective preparation for encoding information in adults. In study 1, we established that 11-moold infants exhibit an increase in theta activation in situations when they can expect to receive information. We then used this neural measure of anticipatory theta activity to explore the expectations of 11-mo-olds when facing social partners who either speak the infants' native language or a foreign tongue (study 2). A larger increase in theta oscillations was observed when infants could expect to receive information from the native speaker, indicating that infants were preparing to learn information from the native speaker to a greater extent than from the foreign speaker. While previous research has demonstrated that infants prefer to interact with knowledgeable others, the current experiments provide evidence that such an information-seeking motive may also underpin infants' demonstrated preference for native speakers.
AB - Humans' preference for others who share our group membership is well documented, and this heightened valuation of in-group members seems to be rooted in early development. Before 12 mo of age, infants already show behavioral preferences for others who evidence cues to same-group membership such as race or native language, yet the function of this selectivity remains unclear. We examine one of these social biases, the preference for native speakers, and propose that this preference may result from infants' motivation to obtain information and the expectation that interactions with native speakers will provide better opportunities for learning. To investigate this hypothesis, we measured EEG theta activity, a neural rhythm shown to index active and selective preparation for encoding information in adults. In study 1, we established that 11-moold infants exhibit an increase in theta activation in situations when they can expect to receive information. We then used this neural measure of anticipatory theta activity to explore the expectations of 11-mo-olds when facing social partners who either speak the infants' native language or a foreign tongue (study 2). A larger increase in theta oscillations was observed when infants could expect to receive information from the native speaker, indicating that infants were preparing to learn information from the native speaker to a greater extent than from the foreign speaker. While previous research has demonstrated that infants prefer to interact with knowledgeable others, the current experiments provide evidence that such an information-seeking motive may also underpin infants' demonstrated preference for native speakers.
KW - social selectivity
KW - infants
KW - information seeking
KW - theta oscillations
KW - native speakers
KW - THETA-SYNCHRONIZATION
KW - DIRECTED SPEECH
KW - LANGUAGE
KW - MEMORY
KW - EEG
KW - ATTENTION
KW - OSCILLATIONS
KW - RELIABILITY
KW - RECEIVE
KW - HUMANS
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1603261113
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1603261113
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27791064
AN - SCOPUS:84994253205
VL - 113
SP - 12397
EP - 12402
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 44
ER -
ID: 179168495