Developmental changes in associations between auditory-visual events

The goal of the present study was twofold: to examine the influence of two amodal properties, colocation and temporal synchrony, on infants' associati ng a sight with a sound, and to determine if the relative influence of thes e properties on crossmodal learning changes with age. During familiarizatio n 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-month-olds were presented two toys and a sound, with sig hts and sounds varying with respect to co-location and temporal synchrony. Following each familiarization phase infants were given a paired preference test to assess their teaming of sight-sound associations. Measures of pref erential looking revealed age-related changes in the influence of co-locati on and temporal synchrony on infants' learning sight-sound associations. At all ages, infants could use temporal synchrony and co-location as a basis for associating an auditory with a visual event and, in the absence of temp oral synchrony, co-location was sufficient to support crossmodal learning. However, when these cues conflicted there were developmental changes in the influence of these cues on infants' learning auditory-visual associations. At 2 and 4 months infants associated the sounds with the toy that moved in synchrony with the sound's rhythm despite extreme violation of co-location of this sight and sound. In contrast, 6- and 8-month-olds did not associat e a specific toy with the sound when co-location and synchrony information conflicted. The findings highlight the unique and interactive effects of di stinct amodal properties on infants' learning arbitrary crossmodal relation s. Possible explanations for the age shift in performance are discussed.