Sequence learning in 4-month-old infants: do infants represent ordinal information?. Lewkowicz, D. J. & Berent, I. Child Dev, 80(6):1811–1823, 2009.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
This study investigated how 4-month-old infants represent sequences: Do they track the statistical relations among specific sequence elements (e.g., AB, BC) or do they encode abstract ordinal positions (i.e., B is second)? Infants were habituated to sequences of 4 moving and sounding elements-3 of the elements varied in their ordinal position while the position of 1 target element remained invariant (e.g., ABCD, CBDA)-and then were tested for the detection of changes in the target's position. Infants detected an ordinal change only when it disrupted the statistical co-occurrence of elements but not when statistical information was controlled. It is concluded that 4-month-olds learn the order of sequence elements by tracking their statistical associations but not their invariant ordinal position.
@Article{Lewkowicz2009,
  author      = {Lewkowicz, David J. and Berent, Iris},
  journal     = {Child Dev},
  title       = {Sequence learning in 4-month-old infants: do infants represent ordinal information?},
  year        = {2009},
  number      = {6},
  pages       = {1811--1823},
  volume      = {80},
  abstract    = {This study investigated how 4-month-old infants represent sequences:
	Do they track the statistical relations among specific sequence elements
	(e.g., AB, BC) or do they encode abstract ordinal positions (i.e.,
	B is second)? Infants were habituated to sequences of 4 moving and
	sounding elements-3 of the elements varied in their ordinal position
	while the position of 1 target element remained invariant (e.g.,
	ABCD, CBDA)-and then were tested for the detection of changes in
	the target's position. Infants detected an ordinal change only when
	it disrupted the statistical co-occurrence of elements but not when
	statistical information was controlled. It is concluded that 4-month-olds
	learn the order of sequence elements by tracking their statistical
	associations but not their invariant ordinal position.},
  doi         = {10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01369.x},
  institution = {Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA. lewkowic@fau.edu},
  keywords    = {Attention; Auditory Perception; Child Psychology; Concept Formation; Discrimination (Psychology); Female; Generalization, Stimulus; Habituation, Psychophysiologic; Humans; Infant; Male; Motion Perception; Orientation; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Problem Solving; Serial Learning},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {19930353},
  timestamp   = {2012.07.10},
}

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