COLUMBUS, Ohio -- New research provides the strongest evidence
to date that infants and young children – unlike adults -- are
more drawn to sounds than they are to visuals in their
environment. In fact, when 4-year-olds are presented with sounds
and pictures at the same time and told to pay particular
attention to the pictures, they can't – the sounds dominate
their attention. "We found that sounds are dominant over visuals
from infancy, and only slowly through childhood do visuals
become more important," said Vladimir Sloutsky, professor in the
Center for Cognitive Science at Ohio State University. "The
younger the children are, the more dominant their auditory
system seems to be." Earlier work by Sloutsky and his colleagues
also showed this preference for sounds over visuals among
children. But this new research offers a clearer picture of the
nature of this auditory preference and how it changes over time.
For infants, sounds are preferred almost exclusively. Older
children tested at 4 years of age general