MY RESEARCH

INFANCY: Temporal attention and language during development

In this line of research I investigate the developmental relation between temporal attention and rule learning in language after the first year of life. I follow the developmental progression of these two capacities by collecting data from experimental paradigms using eye tracker systems along with the assessment of general cognitive capacities and vocabulary development (Bayley-III and MacArthur scales).

AGES: 12, 15, and 18 months

Attention task

Bayley-III

RELATED ARTICLES Martinez-Alvarez, A., Pons, F. & De Diego-Balaguer, R. (2017). Endogenous temporal attention in the absence of stimulus-driven cues emerges in the second year of life. PLOS ONE. 12(9):e0184698 De Diego-Balaguer, R., Martinez-Alvarez, A. & Pons, F. (2016) Temporal attention as a scaffold for language development. Frontiers in Psychology. 7:44. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00044. Martinez-Alvarez, A., Pons,F. & De Diego-Balaguer, R. Cognitive flexibility influences language rule learning in 15-month-olds (in prep.)

CHILDHOOD & LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT: Temporal attention in typical and atypical language development

In this line of research I aim to uncover(i) how temporal orienting mechanisms develop during childhood, (ii) how these attentional mechanisms are associated with rule learning in language, and (iii) whether temporal orienting deficits are related to deficits in language impairment, by collecting data from reaction time paradigms along with the assessment of non-verbal cognitive capacities (K-Bit and ADHD scales, among others), with children, adults, and Language Impairment children.

AGES: from 4 to 12 years

RELATED ARTICLES De Diego-Balaguer, R., Martinez-Alvarez, A. & Pons, F. (2016) Temporal attention as a scaffold for language development. Frontiers in Psychology. 7:44. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00044. Martinez-Alvarez, A., Sanz, M., Pons, & De Diego-Balaguer. Executive mechanisms modulate temporal orienting of attention (under review). Martinez-Alvarez, A., Ripollés, P., Sanz, M., Andreu, Ll., Pons, & De Diego-Balaguer. Language learning is associated to flexible mechanisms of temporal attention: evidence from typical and atypical language development(in prep)

LANGUAGE NEUROSCIENCE: Neural basis of infant rule learning

Within this line of research, we have established a collaboration with Dr. Judit Gervain from the Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception (LPP) at the CNRS in Paris. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to study the brain metabolism of infants while exposed to linguistic stimulation. Our collaboration aims at studying how prosodic information -as an attention orienting cue- enhances the learning process of linguistic rules in infants.

AGES: 8-10-month-olds

RELATED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONSMartinez-Alvarez, A.​​, Gervain, J., Koulaguina, E., Pons, F. & de Diego-Balaguer, R. (2018). Neural basis of attention cues assisting grammar learning in preverbal infants [Oral presentation] fNIRS biennial meeting of the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, October 5-8, Tokyo, Japan.  Martinez-Alvarez, A., Gervain, J., Pons, F. & de Diego-Balaguer, R. (2017). Neural basis of non-repetition based rule learning in infants: a NIRS study [Oral presentation] Workshop on Infant Language Development, June 15-17, Bilbao, Spain.