Margherita Fort
Biographic Data
| ID | 1047781 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Margherita Fort |
| GIVEN NAMES | Margherita |
| FAMILY NAME | Fort |
| SIGNATURE | FORT M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lyon 1 Université |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4519-6185 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Covering the eyes or mouth of a speaker does not prevent word learning in typically developing infants
Infant gaze-following skills and selective attention to the mouth of talking faces during their first year correlate with their vocabulary growth in their second year. This correlational evidence has led to the hypothesis that these attentional strategies are key mechanisms supporting word acquisition, a process which drastically improves during toddlerhood. If so, covering the eyes or mouth region of a talking face that teaches toddlers novel wo…
Infants' Preference for ID Speech in Face and Voice Extends to a Non‐Native Language
Infants prefer infant‐directed (ID) speech. Concerning talking faces, previous research showed that 3‐ and 5‐month‐olds prefer faces that produce native ID than native adult‐directed (AD) speech, regardless of background speech being ID, AD or silent. Here, we explored whether infants also show a preference for non‐native ID speech. We presented 3‐ and 6‐month‐old infants with pairs of talking faces, one producing non‐native ID speech and the oth…
The Comprehensive Early Childhood Parenting Questionnaire – Italian Version (Cecpaq-IT)
SYNOPSIS Objective. The current study examines the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Italian version of the Comprehensive Early Childhood Parenting Questionnaire (CECPAQ-IT), a self-report questionnaire that assesses parenting Support, Stimulation, Structure, Harsh discipline, and Positive discipline. Design. Participants were 2013 Italian mothers rearing a 4– to 5-year-old child (51.8% boys, Mage = 4.33 years, SD = 0.47). Result…
French Speakers Prefer Prosody Over Statistics to Segment Speech
To segment words in unfamiliar speech, listeners are known to exploit both native prosodic cues and statistical cues available in the speech signal. However, how and when these cues are combined remains a matter of debate. Here, we studied how transitional probabilities (TPs) and prosodic phrasal boundaries are combined by French speakers to segment words. Since French does not have lexical stress, prosodic phrasal boundaries unambiguously signal…
Impact of language familiarity on abstract pattern recognition in 9- to 12-month-old infants
Previous studies found an impact of language familiarity on face recognition in 9- and 12-month-olds. Own race faces are better recognized when associated with native language, whereas for other race faces, it is with non-native language. The aim of this study is to investigate if language familiarity can also influence abstract pattern recognition. We tested 9- to 12-month-old monolingual infants with a visual paired-comparison task. During a 30…
Perceptual Narrowing in Face Processing
An infant's face‐ and speech‐processing system develops during the first year from broad and non‐specific to becoming a system that is tuned to the faces and languages to which they are most exposed. This phenomenon is called perceptual narrowing. Before 9 months of age, infants are capable of discriminating and recognizing individuals from any type of race/species faces. However, with increased exposure to own‐race and own‐species faces and lack…
The effect of masks on the visual preference for faces in the first year of life
To prevent the spread of COVID‐19, face masks were mandatory in many public spaces around the world. Since faces are the gateway to early social cognition, this raised major concerns about the effect face masks may have on infants' attention to faces as well as on their language and social development. The goal of the present study was to assess how face masks modulate infants' attention to faces over the course of the first year of life. We meas…
Can language modulate perceptual narrowing for faces? Other-race face recognition in infants is modulated by language experience
Between 6 and 9 months, while infant’s ability to discriminate faces within their own racial group is maintained, discrimination of faces within other-race groups declines to a point where 9-month-old infants fail to discriminate other-race faces. Such face perception narrowing can be overcome in various ways at 9 or 12 months of age, such as presenting faces with emotional expressions. Can language itself modulate face narrowing? Many adult stud…
Mindful Parenting Intervention MinUTo App for Parents of Preschool Children
The study will add new considerations about the psychological and economic impact of technologies in implementing parenting interventions in non-clinical populations
Language familiarity influences own‐race face recognition in 9‐ and 12‐month‐old infants
During their first year, infants attune to the faces and language(s) that are frequent in their environment. The present study investigates the impact of language familiarity on how French‐learning 9‐ and 12‐month‐olds recognize own‐race faces. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with the talking face of a Caucasian bilingual German‐French speaker reciting a nursery rhyme in French (native condition) or in German (non‐native condition). In…
Cognitive and Noncognitive Costs of Day Care at Age 0–2 for Children in Advantaged Families
Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0-2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age \n8-14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These \nfindings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer …
Multimodal Language Learning
Impact of Bilingualism on Infants' Ability to Learn From Talking and Nontalking Faces
To probably overcome the challenge of learning two languages at the same time, infants raised in a bilingual environment pay more attention to the mouth of talking faces than same-age monolinguals. Here we examined the consequences of such preference for monolingual and bilingual infants' ability to perceive nonspeech information coming from the eyes or the mouth region of talking faces. Using a learning procedure, we recorded 15-month-olds' and …
The Causal Effect of Education on Health
We investigate the causal effect of education on health and the part of it that is attributable to health behaviors by distinguishing between short‐run and long‐run mediating effects: whereas, in the former, only behaviors in the immediate past are taken into account, in the latter, we consider the entire history of behaviors. We use two identification strategies: instrumental variables based on compulsory schooling reforms and a combined aggrega…
Is Education Always Reducing Fertility? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms
We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in England and Continental Europe, implemented between 1936 and 1975. We assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological children and the incidence of childlessness. While we find a negative relationship between education and fertility in England, this result cannot be confirmed for Continental Europe. The additional education gene…
Consonants are More Important than Vowels in the Bouba-kiki Effect
Adult listeners systematically associate certain speech sounds with round or spiky shapes, a sound-symbolic phenomenon known as the “bouba-kiki effect.” In this study, we investigate the respective influences of consonants and vowels in this phenomenon. French participants were asked to match auditorily presented pseudowords with one of two visually presented shapes, one round and one spiky. The pseudowords were created by crossing either two con…
Changes in Compulsory Schooling, Education and the Distribution of Wages in Europe
Using data from 12 European countries and the variation across countries and over time in the changes of minimum school leaving age, we study the effects of the quantity of education on the distribution of earnings. We find that compulsory school reforms significantly affect educational attainment, especially among individuals belonging to the lowest quantiles of the distribution of ability. There is also evidence that additional education reduce…
Is Education Always Reducing Fertility? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms
We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in England and Continental Europe, implemented between 1936 and 1975. We assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological children and the incidence of childlessness. While we find a negative relationship between education and fertility in England, this result cannot be confirmed for Continental Europe. The additional education gene…
Changes in Compulsory Schooling, Education and the Distribution of Wages in Europe
Using data from 12 European countries and the variation across countries and over time in the changes of minimum school leaving age, we study the effects of the quantity of education on the distribution of earnings. We find that compulsory school reforms significantly affect educational attainment, especially among individuals belonging to the lowest quantiles of the distribution of ability. There is also evidence that additional education reduce…
Cognitive and Noncognitive Costs of Day Care at Age 0–2 for Children in Advantaged Families
Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0-2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age \n8-14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These \nfindings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer …
Consonants are More Important than Vowels in the Bouba-kiki Effect
Adult listeners systematically associate certain speech sounds with round or spiky shapes, a sound-symbolic phenomenon known as the “bouba-kiki effect.” In this study, we investigate the respective influences of consonants and vowels in this phenomenon. French participants were asked to match auditorily presented pseudowords with one of two visually presented shapes, one round and one spiky. The pseudowords were created by crossing either two con…
Impact of Bilingualism on Infants' Ability to Learn From Talking and Nontalking Faces
To probably overcome the challenge of learning two languages at the same time, infants raised in a bilingual environment pay more attention to the mouth of talking faces than same-age monolinguals. Here we examined the consequences of such preference for monolingual and bilingual infants' ability to perceive nonspeech information coming from the eyes or the mouth region of talking faces. Using a learning procedure, we recorded 15-month-olds' and …
Changes in Compulsory Schooling, Education and the Distribution of Wages in Europe
Using data from 12 European countries and the variation across countries and over time in the changes of minimum school leaving age, we study the effects of the quantity of education on the distribution of earnings. We find that compulsory school reforms significantly affect educational attainment, especially among individuals belonging to the lowest quantiles of the distribution of ability. There is also evidence that additional education reduce…
Consonants are More Important than Vowels in the Bouba-kiki Effect
Adult listeners systematically associate certain speech sounds with round or spiky shapes, a sound-symbolic phenomenon known as the “bouba-kiki effect.” In this study, we investigate the respective influences of consonants and vowels in this phenomenon. French participants were asked to match auditorily presented pseudowords with one of two visually presented shapes, one round and one spiky. The pseudowords were created by crossing either two con…
The Causal Effect of Education on Health
We investigate the causal effect of education on health and the part of it that is attributable to health behaviors by distinguishing between short‐run and long‐run mediating effects: whereas, in the former, only behaviors in the immediate past are taken into account, in the latter, we consider the entire history of behaviors. We use two identification strategies: instrumental variables based on compulsory schooling reforms and a combined aggrega…
Is Education Always Reducing Fertility? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms
We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in England and Continental Europe, implemented between 1936 and 1975. We assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological children and the incidence of childlessness. While we find a negative relationship between education and fertility in England, this result cannot be confirmed for Continental Europe. The additional education gene…
Multimodal Language Learning
Impact of Bilingualism on Infants' Ability to Learn From Talking and Nontalking Faces
To probably overcome the challenge of learning two languages at the same time, infants raised in a bilingual environment pay more attention to the mouth of talking faces than same-age monolinguals. Here we examined the consequences of such preference for monolingual and bilingual infants' ability to perceive nonspeech information coming from the eyes or the mouth region of talking faces. Using a learning procedure, we recorded 15-month-olds' and …
Cognitive and Noncognitive Costs of Day Care at Age 0–2 for Children in Advantaged Families
Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0-2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age \n8-14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These \nfindings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer …
Language familiarity influences own‐race face recognition in 9‐ and 12‐month‐old infants
During their first year, infants attune to the faces and language(s) that are frequent in their environment. The present study investigates the impact of language familiarity on how French‐learning 9‐ and 12‐month‐olds recognize own‐race faces. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with the talking face of a Caucasian bilingual German‐French speaker reciting a nursery rhyme in French (native condition) or in German (non‐native condition). In…
Can language modulate perceptual narrowing for faces? Other-race face recognition in infants is modulated by language experience
Between 6 and 9 months, while infant’s ability to discriminate faces within their own racial group is maintained, discrimination of faces within other-race groups declines to a point where 9-month-old infants fail to discriminate other-race faces. Such face perception narrowing can be overcome in various ways at 9 or 12 months of age, such as presenting faces with emotional expressions. Can language itself modulate face narrowing? Many adult stud…
Mindful Parenting Intervention MinUTo App for Parents of Preschool Children
The study will add new considerations about the psychological and economic impact of technologies in implementing parenting interventions in non-clinical populations
The effect of masks on the visual preference for faces in the first year of life
To prevent the spread of COVID‐19, face masks were mandatory in many public spaces around the world. Since faces are the gateway to early social cognition, this raised major concerns about the effect face masks may have on infants' attention to faces as well as on their language and social development. The goal of the present study was to assess how face masks modulate infants' attention to faces over the course of the first year of life. We meas…
Impact of language familiarity on abstract pattern recognition in 9- to 12-month-old infants
Previous studies found an impact of language familiarity on face recognition in 9- and 12-month-olds. Own race faces are better recognized when associated with native language, whereas for other race faces, it is with non-native language. The aim of this study is to investigate if language familiarity can also influence abstract pattern recognition. We tested 9- to 12-month-old monolingual infants with a visual paired-comparison task. During a 30…
Perceptual Narrowing in Face Processing
An infant's face‐ and speech‐processing system develops during the first year from broad and non‐specific to becoming a system that is tuned to the faces and languages to which they are most exposed. This phenomenon is called perceptual narrowing. Before 9 months of age, infants are capable of discriminating and recognizing individuals from any type of race/species faces. However, with increased exposure to own‐race and own‐species faces and lack…
Infants' Preference for ID Speech in Face and Voice Extends to a Non‐Native Language
Infants prefer infant‐directed (ID) speech. Concerning talking faces, previous research showed that 3‐ and 5‐month‐olds prefer faces that produce native ID than native adult‐directed (AD) speech, regardless of background speech being ID, AD or silent. Here, we explored whether infants also show a preference for non‐native ID speech. We presented 3‐ and 6‐month‐old infants with pairs of talking faces, one producing non‐native ID speech and the oth…
The Comprehensive Early Childhood Parenting Questionnaire – Italian Version (Cecpaq-IT)
SYNOPSIS Objective. The current study examines the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Italian version of the Comprehensive Early Childhood Parenting Questionnaire (CECPAQ-IT), a self-report questionnaire that assesses parenting Support, Stimulation, Structure, Harsh discipline, and Positive discipline. Design. Participants were 2013 Italian mothers rearing a 4– to 5-year-old child (51.8% boys, Mage = 4.33 years, SD = 0.47). Result…
French Speakers Prefer Prosody Over Statistics to Segment Speech
To segment words in unfamiliar speech, listeners are known to exploit both native prosodic cues and statistical cues available in the speech signal. However, how and when these cues are combined remains a matter of debate. Here, we studied how transitional probabilities (TPs) and prosodic phrasal boundaries are combined by French speakers to segment words. Since French does not have lexical stress, prosodic phrasal boundaries unambiguously signal…
Covering the eyes or mouth of a speaker does not prevent word learning in typically developing infants
Infant gaze-following skills and selective attention to the mouth of talking faces during their first year correlate with their vocabulary growth in their second year. This correlational evidence has led to the hypothesis that these attentional strategies are key mechanisms supporting word acquisition, a process which drastically improves during toddlerhood. If so, covering the eyes or mouth region of a talking face that teaches toddlers novel wo…
Psychology (14 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Linguistics (8 works) · Face Recognition and Perception (7 works) · Multisensory perception and integration (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Perception (5 works) · Cognition (4 works) · First language (4 works) · Preference (4 works)