Mahtab Askari
Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
Title: An Investigation of the Learning Probability Distributions Mechanism in Infants Using an Eye-Tracking Technology
Biography
Biography: Mahtab Askari
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: Statistical learning is a learning style which mainly causes an individual to unconsciously extract probabilities in the environment, generalize them, and turn them into a subjective rule in order to finally interact with the environment based on them. This learning style emerges in the early hours of birth, and infants use it to make inferences about the frequencies of the environment. Accordingly, they can interact with the environment, parents and other important individuals. The purpose of this study is to investigate this type of learning which has a great impact on the estimation and learning of the environment as well as the mother-infant relationship using the precise eye tracker technology. The amount of visit time per seconds and the fixation time were assessed and the results confirmed the existence of this unconscious learning mechanism among infants.
Finding: The findings of ANOVA with repeated measures indicated that there was a significant difference between the total visit duration and total fixation duration in shapes with different frequencies (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to the research findings, it can be concluded that the statistical learning mechanism is active in infants. Moreover, it becomes more complicated with age, and infants make cognitive interactions with the environment based on this mechanism.