Identifying The Role of Caregiver-Infant Coupling in Language Development

This project will reveal how behavioural and neural coupling emerge and scaffold language
development by studying interactions between caregivers and infants across 1 week to 2
years of age. Coupling refers to a state of synergetic alignment between two individuals that
makes it possible to establish shared understanding. The specific aims of the project are to:
1) document the emergence of behavioural coupling across 1- to 9-weeks of age by
determining when behavioural coupling, such as mutual gaze and affect mirroring, first
appears, and how the rate of coupling changes across this period.
2) document how more complex forms of coupling at 9 months of age relevant to word
learning (e.g., vocal imitation and joint attention) emerge from mirroring.
3) determine how language use at all ages relates to the frequency and duration of
coupling.4) determine how behavioural coupling is linked to neural coupling at 4 months of age, and
identify whether the behaviours that most frequently lead to behavioural coupling also lead
to the most robust neural coupling, using functional Near-Infra-Red Spectroscopy, or fNIRS.
This project will reveal the mechanisms by which infants and caregivers become aligned
during interaction, and how language use emerges from this process.
Background
Coupling refers to the ability to "get on the same page" with others, or to states in which
individuals successfully coordinate their attention, establish shared knowledge states, and
cooperate (Stephens et al., 2010). Language is a powerful tool for generating coupling
because it allows sharing abstract concepts and planning with a high degree of precision.
Paradoxically, there is evidence that a shared symbolic language requires establishing
mutual understanding - via coupling - to emerge in the first place (Stolk et al., 2014).
However, little is known about how language-driven coupling emerges.