Abstract
This study investigated auditory-visual matching of faces and voices by preterm versus full-term infants at 3, 5, and 7 months of age. A total of 141 infants were tested using a two-screen preference procedure in which subjects were presented side-by-side videos of two females reciting nursery ryhmes while a centrally presented voice soundtrack was synchronized with only one film. A significantly higher rate of visual fixation to the sound-matching films was observed in the full-term 3- and 7-month groups, but not at 5 months. Longitudal testing confirmed the U- shaped development curve for full-term infant's task performance. In contrast to full terms, preterm infants did not display evidence of detecting face—voice synchrony. This suggests that an auditory—visual matching deficit may be associated with infant prematurity.
