Learning and Intermodal Transfer of Information in Newborns

Abstract

Previous research has shown that infants as young as I month of age are capable of intermodal matching (Meltzoff & Borton, 1979) The results of the present studies show that newborns as young as 12 hr old have the same ability to match seen shape with orally presented shape The shapes used were unfamiliar The matching thus depended on learning, completed within seconds, and transfer across modality and dimensions It is proposed that such transfer may be based on an internal symbolic or languagelike system of representation