Effect of infant bilingualism on audiovisual integration in a McGurk task

Evelyne Mercure; Peter Bright; Isabel Quiroz; Roberto Filippi

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105351

Effect of infant bilingualism on audiovisual integration in a McGurk task

J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 May:217:105351. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105351. Epub 2022 Jan 29.

Authors

Evelyne Mercure¹, Peter Bright², Isabel Quiroz³, Roberto Filippi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, UK; School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK; UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Electronic address: e.mercure@gold.ac.uk.
² School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK.
³ School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
⁴ UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

PMID: 35093667
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105351

Abstract

Infants growing up in an environment where more than one language is spoken tend to follow the early milestones of early language development. This is an impressive achievement given that they are learning two languages while receiving reduced exposure to each of these languages compared with monolingual infants. This increased variability in their linguistic environment may lead to adjustments in the way bilingual infants process visual and auditory speech. This study aimed to clarify the influence of infant bilingualism on the development of audiovisual speech integration. Using eye tracking and a McGurk paradigm, we studied face scanning patterns when 7- to 10-month-old infants were viewing articulation of audiovisually congruent and incongruent syllables. We found that monolingual infants decreased their attention to the mouth and increased their attention to the eyes of speaking faces when presented with incongruent articulation, typically leading to the McGurk illusion during adulthood. In bilingual infants, no differences in face scanning patterns were observed between audiovisually congruent and incongruent articulation, suggesting that the increased variability in their speech experience may lead to more tolerance to articulatory inconsistencies. These results suggest that the development of audiovisual speech perception is influenced by infants' language environment.

Keywords: Audiovisual; Bilingual; Language development; McGurk; Multisensory; Speech.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Humans
Illusions*
Infant
Mouth
Multilingualism*
Speech Perception*
Visual Perception