Assessing individual differences in the speed and accuracy of intersensory processing in young children: The intersensory processing efficiency protocol

Dev Psychol. 2018 Dec;54(12):2226-2239. doi: 10.1037/dev0000575. Epub 2018 Oct 22.

Abstract

Detecting intersensory redundancy guides cognitive, social, and language development. Yet, researchers lack fine-grained, individual difference measures needed for studying how early intersensory skills lead to later outcomes. The intersensory processing efficiency protocol (IPEP) addresses this need. Across a number of brief trials, participants must find a sound-synchronized visual target event (social, nonsocial) amid five visual distractor events, simulating the "noisiness" of natural environments. Sixty-four 3- to 5-year-old children were tested using remote eye-tracking. Children showed intersensory processing by attending to the sound-synchronous event more frequently and longer than in a silent visual control, and more frequently than expected by chance. The IPEP provides a fine-grained, nonverbal method for characterizing individual differences in intersensory processing appropriate for infants and children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

MeSH terms

  • Attention / physiology*
  • Auditory Perception / physiology*
  • Child Development / physiology*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Eye Movement Measurements
  • Facial Recognition / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Individuality*
  • Male
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual / physiology*
  • Reaction Time / physiology*
  • Social Perception