This volume contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on the topic of "Changes in Speech and Face Processing in Infancy: A glimpse at Developmental Mechanisms of Cognition", which was held in Carry-Ie-Rouet (France) at the Vacanciel "La Calanque", from June 29 to July 3, 1992. For many years, developmental researchers have been systematically exploring what is concealed by the blooming and buzzing confusion (as William James described the infant's world). Much research has been carried out on the mechanisms by which organisms recognize and relate to their conspecifics, in particular with respect to language acquisition and face recognition. Given this background, it seems worthwhile to compare not only the conceptual advances made in these two domains, but also the methodological difficulties faced in each of them. In both domains, there is evidence of sophisticated abilities right from birth. Similarly, researchers in these domains have focused on whether the mechanisms underlying these early competences are modality-specific, object­ specific or otherwise.

Inhalt

The roles of experience in different developmental information stage processes.- The relevance of primate corticogenesis for understanding the emergence of cognitive abilities in man.- Synaptogenesis in the prefrontal cortex of the Macaque.- Maturation of synapses and gaba-immunoreactive neurons in the perinatal human visual cortex.- Dendritic structure and language development.- Development of brain substrates for pattern recognition in primates: physiological and connectional studies of inferior temporal cortex in infant monkeys.- Functional mapping of the human brain.- Mechanisms in infant face processing.- Specific vs non-specific face recognition device.- Neonatal synesthesia: Implications for the processing of speech and faces.- Visual perceptual abilities at birth: Implications for face perception.- Cortical parcellation and the development of face processing.- Hemispheric differences in face processing and brain maturation.- The origins of differential hemispheric strategies for information processing in the relationships between voice and face perception.- Infant sensitivity to perturbations in adult facial, vocal, tactile and contingent stimulation during face-to-face interactions.- The recognition of facial expressions in infancy: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.- Frontal function in cognitive and emotional behaviors during infancy: effects of maturation and experience.- Why faces are special to infants - On connecting the attraction of faces and infants' ability for imitation and cross-modal processing.- Sometimes it pays to look back before you leap ahead.- Speech stimuli in the fetal environment.- Infants' perception of speech units: primary representation capacities.- Innate predispositions and the effects of experience in speech perception: the native language magnet theory.- The ontogeny and developmental significance of language-specific phonetic perception.- Emergence of language-specific constraints in perception of non-native speech: a window on early phonological development.- Segmentation of fluent speech into words: learning models and the role of maternal input.- The role of the face in vocal learning and the development of spoken language.- Sonority theory and syllable pattern as keys to sensory-motor-cognitive interactions in infant vocal development.- Motor explanations of babbling and early speech patterns.- Ontogeny of language-specific syllabic productions.- On the ontogenetic requirements for early language acquisition.- The acquisition of prosody: evidence from French- and English-learning infants.- Phonetic systems and phonological development.- The construction of a phonological system.- Connectionist modeling and the microstructure of phonological development: A progress report.- Developmental changes in the acquisition of phonology.- Development of language relevant processing systems: the emergence of a cognitive module.- Some theoretical implications of cross-modal research in speech perception.- Author Index.