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Science 25 May 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5828, p. 1159
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137686
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Visual Language Discrimination in Infancy

Whitney M. Weikum,1* Athena Vouloumanos,2 Jordi Navarra,3,4 Salvador Soto-Faraco,4,5 Núria Sebastián-Gallés,4 Janet F. Werker1

This study shows that 4- and 6-month-old infants can discriminate languages (English from French) just from viewing silently presented articulations. By the age of 8 months, only bilingual (French-English) infants succeed at this task. These findings reveal a surprisingly early preparedness for visual language discrimination and highlight infants' selectivity for retaining only necessary perceptual sensitivities.

1 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
2 McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada.
3 Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
4 Parc Científic de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
5 Institut Catatlà de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: whitney{at}psych.ubc.ca

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