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Modality dominance in young children: the underlying mechanisms and broader implications

Napolitano, Amanda C
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1146171556

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Previous research established that early in development, processing of arbitrarily paired auditory-visual stimuli often results in modality dominance effects, with young children processing one modality while failing to process the other modality (Sloutsky & Napolitano, 2003; Napolitano & Sloutsky, 2003; Robinson & Sloutsky, 2004). These modality dominance effects are important for understanding the development of auditory and visual processing and attention, and they may have broader implications for understanding some critical aspects of interrelations between language and cognitive development. To address these issues, the current research examines: 1) the factors underlying modality dominance, 2) the role of attention in modality dominance, 3) and the role of modality dominance effects in categorization. In the first set of experiments (Chapter 2), 4-year-olds were presented with auditory/visual compounds, in which (a) the familiarity of auditory stimuli relative to visual stimuli was systematically varied (Experiments 1-2) and (b) auditory stimuli became more language-like (Experiments 3-4). The second set of experiments (Chapter 3) examined the attentional mechanism underlying modality dominance, by (a) mixing trials or blocks of trials that produce visual and auditory dominance (Experiments 5-7), and (b) giving explicit instructions to ignore the dominant modality (Experiments 8-9). The final set of experiments (Chapter 4) explored whether modality dominance alone could explain the effects of labels by presenting 4-year-olds with a forced-choice categorization task that pit shared picture against shared sound, where sounds were nonsense count nouns (Experiment 10), vowel patterns (Experiments 11-12), familiar machine sounds (Experiment 13), or tone patterns (Experiment 14). In sum, findings presented in the three phases of research support the attentional account of modality dominance and suggest that the effects of linguistic labels in categorization may stem in part from modality dominance effects.
Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor)
141 p.
cross-modal processing; modality dominance; auditory overshadowing; familiarity effects; attention; conceptual development; sensory development

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Napolitano, A. C. (2006). Modality dominance in young children: the underlying mechanisms and broader implications [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1146171556

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Napolitano, Amanda. Modality dominance in young children: the underlying mechanisms and broader implications. 2006. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1146171556.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Napolitano, Amanda. "Modality dominance in young children: the underlying mechanisms and broader implications." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1146171556

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1146171556
979
© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.