Many objects in the environment produce sounds as they move. This has been found to help infants learn the trajectory of objects even when the objects briefly disappear from sight, as is the case when an object moves behind an occluder. For example, when infants both see and hear a ball moving sideways behind a box they anticipate more often where the ball will reappear, than when the ball is moving but the sound appears to be coming from the static box. To what extent infants encode better objects that produce sounds as they move, or they simply track better the location of such objects, is a question that we are trying to answer in this study.

To do this, we are showing infants different geometrical shapes that move sideways behind an occluder while accompanied by different sounds, and record the interval of time that infants spend watching the animations. We are currently inviting 4 to 5 month old infants to take part in this study.