This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.Information gained from this study has the potential to catalyze advances in how we approach learning in the premature infant and thereby provide an important basis for effective interventions. Although preliminary research indicated by detection of a cardiac orienting response COR, occurs in premature infants as early as 34 weeks, we do not know what specific behavioral process respondent learning or operant learning is responsible for learning to occur. The purpose of this study is to determine if respondent learning is the behavioral process responsible for learning, and what characteristics of an auditory test stimulus amodal or modality-specific are salient for learning to occur in premature infants. The primary aim will determine if respondent conditioning is the behavioral process responsible for learning. Twenty-eight premature infants randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group 1 infants will begin participation at 28 weeks by listening to a recording of their mother reciting a nursery rhyme rhyme A preceded by a brief tone. A control group Group 2 will receive no maternal recitation, only the brief tone. We will measure the infants COR to the tone-only in seven weekly test sessions from 28 - 34 weeks post-conceptional age. The COR may be taken as an indication of familiarity to the nursery rhyme or learning. The secondary aim will test the intersensory redundancy hypothesis by identifying whether following a history of exposure to a unimodal auditory stimulus CD recording, are the amodal or modality-specific characteristics of the auditory test stimulus most salient for learning.
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