Calendar of events

Title:

Social contingency and the origins of vocal development: mechanisms and cross-cultural developmental pathways

Abstract:

How do infants learn that their vocalisations can influence their social environment?

The emergence of a sense of agency over vocal behaviour critically depends on social contingency: the timely responses of social partners. Yet the process by which social contingency enables infants to learn the social efficacy of vocalising remains poorly understood, particularly in relation to the underlying mechanisms and cross-cultural developmental pathways. In this talk, I will present findings from two complementary studies. Study 1 aims to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin the sense of agency over vocalisations. We examined whether 5- to 6-month-old infants can rapidly learn the contingency between their own vocalising and a novel audio-visual imitative response, and whether they attempt to test this newly learned contingency when it is suddenly discontinued. We found evidence of rapid vocal contingency learning, but no clear support for an active attempt to test this newly learned contingency. Study 2 (ongoing) examines cross-cultural developmental pathways to the emerging sense of agency over vocalisations, assessed longitudinally at 3 and 4.5 months of age. Infants from middle‐class families in Münster, urban Germany, and from indigenous‐heritage Kichwa families in the northern Andes, rural Ecuador, were tested using the still-face paradigm. We expect universality without uniformity in the development of a sense of agency over vocalisations. Taken together, these studies offer complementary insights into the mechanisms and cross-cultural pathways that underpin a critical aspect of early vocal development.

Bio:

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster (Germany), where I study the links between social contingency and early vocal development. I investigate this topic using a combination of experimental and observational approaches, from both longitudinal and cross-cultural perspectives. I received my PhD from Lancaster University (UK), where I researched word learning from written contexts in early childhood as part of the MSCA Innovative Training Network on Early Language Development in the Digital Age. Prior to this, I completed a Master’s in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Trento (Italy), with a thesis on the neurocognitive mechanisms of infants’ speech perception, conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Germany). I qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist at the University of Milan (Italy).