Modality preference and its change in the course of development

The current study examines the modality preference and its change in the course of development. Based on findings from previous research (Balaban & Waxman, 1997; Roberts, 1995; Sloutsky & Lo, 1999), it was expected that the auditory modality would be privileged at a very young age. In the experiment, participants after being trained to select a target image and sound combination were required to select a new combination where the target image was paired with a new sound and the target sound was paired with a new image. It was argued that the selected set would be indicative of whether the image or sound is more salient. Results indicate that the auditory modality was more salient than visual for 4-year-olds, whereas the visual modality was more salient for 5-year-olds and adults.