Lo spazio modula l’apprendimento di regole astratte da sequenze visive nel primo anno di vita [Space modulates abstract rule learning from visual sequences in the first year of life]

Recent evidences show that, preverbal infants’ ability to learn abstract rules from ordered visual sequences (Rule Learning) is influenced by the spatial information. For example, 7-month-old Italian infants can learn ABB/ABA abstract rules from sequences of geometrical shapes when sequences are presented from left to right, while they fail with a right to left presentation. This study is aimed at investigating whether the modulation of spatial information on infants’ learning abilities can be generalized also to an AAB rule, i.e. a rule that can be learned only from 11 months of age when spatial information is not available. Results confirm that infants are able to learn both the ABB/ABA rules and the new AAB rule, and that this ability is present only when sequences are presented from left to right.