FRIDAY, June 7, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Hearing infants favor sign language to pantomime, lending evidence that humans have a preference for languages over "non-languages," says a new study.
The study tested the reactions of 6-month-old babies -- 17 girls and 17 boys -- to American Sign Language (ALS) and pantomime. All the infants had normal hearing and had no previous exposure to sign language or pantomime.
University of Washington researchers placed each child in front of two television monitors. One monitor showed stories told in ALS by an actress, while the other monitor showed the same actress performing pantomime stories. One story, for instance, involved the actress telling the tale of cooking an egg; in pantomime, she pretended to crack the egg into a pan and flip it.
Each trial lasted about 40 seconds and each infant did six trials. The infants' faces were videotaped to see where their eyes were directed during the trials. Overall, the babies spent about two minutes looking at ASL, 90 seconds looking at pantomime, and 30 seconds looking elsewhere, the study says.
The finding suggests there may be something important in all languages, spoken and unspoken, that is sparking interest in the infants, according to the study author, Ursula Hildebrandt, a UW doctoral student in psychology. Her research was to be presented today at the annual convention of the American Psychological Society in New Orleans.
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