Description:

Title: LEARNING FROM BABIES: HOWINFANTS UNDERSTAND THEVISUAL AND AFFECTIVEWORLDAmerican

Abstract: Developmental approaches uniquely reveal the origins of perceptual andcognitive representations underlying human intelligence. High-level visionand social-affective communication provide an ideal foundation to tacklethese questions, as two core domains that are well-characterized andthought to impact critical developmental skills (e.g., word learning, social-emotional functioning). Here, I will present data leveraging neuroimaging(EEG, fNIRS), behavioral, and computational tools to address how infantslearn to represent and interpret (1) visual objects, and (2) social-affectivecommunication (e.g., face movements or “expressions”). In recent work,we are probing the temporal dynamics and representational geometry ofinfants' visual representations with multivariate pattern analyses ofinfants’ EEG data. We are also using online webcam research (Lookit) totest whether newborns mimic face movements of their caregivers. Takentogether, these data begin to chart trajectories and mechanisms throughwhich we learn to represent visual objects and face movements fromearly life.