Better in sync: Temporal dynamics explain multisensory word‐action‐object learning in early development

Abstract We investigated the temporal impact of multisensory settings on children's learning of word‐object and action‐object associations at 1‐ and 2‐years of age. Specifically, we examined whether the temporal alignment of words and actions influenced the acquisition of novel word‐action‐object associations. We used a preferential looking and violation of expectation task in which infants and young children were first presented with two distinct word‐object and action‐object pairings either in a synchronous (overlapping in time) or sequential manner (one after the other). Findings revealed that 2‐year‐olds recognized both, action‐object and word‐object associations when they first saw the word‐action‐object combinations synchronously, but not sequentially, as evidenced by looking behavior. 1‐year‐olds did not show evidence for recognition for either of the word‐object and action‐object pairs, regardless of the initial temporal alignment of these cues. To control for individual differences, we explored factors that might influence associative learning based on parental reports of 1‐ and 2‐year‐olds development, however, developmental measures did not explain word‐action‐object associative learning in either group. We discuss that while young children may benefit from the temporal alignment of multisensory cues as it enables them to actively engage with the multisensory content in real‐time, infants may have been overwhelmed by the complexity of this input.