Research Findings
Journal Articles
Shepard, K., Spence, M. J., & Sasson, N. J. (2012). Distinct Facial Characteristics Differentiate Communicative Intent of Infant-Directed Speech. Infant & Child Development, 21(6), 555-578. doi:10.1002/icd.1757.
Thierry, K. L., Lamb, M. E., Pipe, M. -E., & Spence, M. J. (2009). The flexibility of source monitoring training: Reducing young children’s source confusions. Applied Cognitive Psychology. Published online in Wiley InterScience. DOI:10.1002/acp.1574.
Spence, M. J. & Moore, D. (2003). Categorization of infant-directed speech: Development from 4 to 6 months. Developmental Psychobiology, 42, 97-109.
Thierry, K. L. & Spence, M. J. (2004). Children’s memory and suggestibility for a real-life and video event. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 297-309.
Roark, D. A., Barrett, S. E., Spence, M. J., Abdi, H., & O’Toole, A. J. (2003). Psychological and neural perspectives on the role of motion in face recognition. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 2 (1), 15-46.
Spence, M. J., Rollins, P. R., & Jerger, S. (2002). Children’s recognition of cartoon voices. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45, 214-222.
Thierry, K. L. & Spence, M. J. (2002). Source-monitoring training facilitates preschoolers’ eyewitness memory performance. Developmental Psychology, 38, 428-437.
Spence, M. J. & Moore, D. S. (2002). Categorization of infant-directed speech. In J. W. Fagen & H. Hayne (Eds.), Advances in Infancy Research (Vol. 2, pp. 261-293). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Thierry, K. L, Spence, M. J., & Memon, A. (2001). Before misinformation is encountered: Source monitoring decreases child witness suggestibility. Journal of Cognition and Development, 2, 1-26.
Van Beveren, T. T., Little, B. B., & Spence, M. J. (2000). Effects of prenatal cocaine-exposure and postnatal environment on child development. American Journal of Human Biology, 12, 417-428.
Wild, H. H., Barrett, S. E., Spence, M. J., O’Toole, A. J., Cheng, Y. D., & Brooke, J. (2000). Recognition and sex categorization of adults’ and children’s faces: Examining performance in the absence of sex stereotyped cues. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 77, 269-291.
Jerger, S., Pearson, D. A., & Spence, M. J. (1999). Developmental course of auditory Processing interactions: Garner Interference and Simon Interference. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 74, 44-67.
Moore, D., Spence, M. J., & Katz, G. (1997). Six-month-olds’ categorization of natural infant-directed utterances. Developmental Psychology, 33, 980-989.
Spence, M. J. (1996). Young infants’ long-term auditory memory: Evidence for changes in preference as a function of delay. Developmental Psychobiology, 29, 685-695.
Spence, M. J. & Freeman, M. S. (1996). Newborn infants prefer the maternal low-pass filtered voice, but not the maternal whispered voice. Infant Behavior and Development, 19, 199-212.
Winograd, E., Kerr, N. H. & Spence, M. J. (1984). Voice recognition: Effects of orienting task and a test of blind versus sighted listeners. American Journal of Psychology, 97, 57-70.
Poster Presentations
Infants’ Perception of Faces and Speech: A Web-Based Study
Presented at the annual conference of the Southwestern Psychological Association in Frisco, TX – March 2023
Infants’ Perception of Humor
Presented at the annual conference of the Southwestern Psychological Association in Frisco, TX – March 2023
Monolingual Infants’ Perception of Infant-Directed Speech Produced in English and Spanish
Presented at the annual conference of the Southwestern Psychological Association in Frisco, TX – March 2023
Siblings’ Impact on Humor Perception
Presented at the annual conference of the Southwestern Psychological Association in Frisco, TX – March 2023
Exploring the Relationship Between Mental-State Language and Children’s Early Vocabulary Development
Presented at the virtual Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting — April 2021
Acoustic Properties of Infant Directed Speech are Similar in Video Chat Versus In-Person Interactions
Presented at the virtual Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting — April 2021
Age Differences in Infants’ Eye-Tracking of Synchronous & Desynchronous Infant-Directed Speech
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies in New Orleans, Louisiana — May 2016
6- and 10-month-olds’ Eye-Tracking of Happy and Disgust Facial Expressions
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies in New Orleans, Louisiana — May 2016
Infants’ Eye-Tracking of Static and Dynamic Facial Expressions
Presented at the 9th Biennial Meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development in Austin, TX — October 2015
Infants’ Eye-Tracking of Audiovisual Faces: Communicative Intent & Facial-Vocal Desynchrony
Presented at the 9th Biennial Meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development in Austin, TX — October 2015
Infants’ Eye-Tracking of Audiovisual Faces: Effects of Facial-Vocal Desynchrony
Presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Sciences in New York, NY — May 2015
The Effects of Familiarity, Infant-Directedness, and Modality on Six-month-olds’ Visual Scanning of Talking Faces
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies in Berlin, Germany — July 2014
Six-month-old Infants’ Scanning of Meaningfully Distinct Silent & Audiovisual Infant-Directed Faces
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies in Berlin, Germany — July 2014
Six-month-old Infants’ Scanning of Meaningfully Distinct Infant-Directed Faces: Effects of Valence
Presented at the 2012 biennial meeting of the International Conference on Infant Studies in Minneapolis, Minnesota — June 2012
Adults’ Interpretation of Meaningful ID Facial Speech
Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in Montreal, QC Canada — March 2011
Discrimination of Other-Race Faces by 6- and 9-Month-Old Infants: Effects of Race Exposure and External Facial Features
Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in Montreal, QC Canada — March 2011
Development of Infant-Directed Speech Categorization: Effects of Facial-Vocal Synchrony
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies in Baltimore, MD — March 2010
Categorization of Infant-Directed Speech: Processing Asynchronous Audio-Visual Speech
Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in San Antonio, TX — October 2009
Categorization of Synchronous Infant-Directed Speech by 4- and 6-Month-Old Infants
Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in Denver, CO — April 2009
Infants’ Categorization of Dynamic Faces: Changes from 6 to 10 Months
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies; Vancouver, BC — March 2008
Disruption of Six-Month-Olds’ Infant-Directed-Speech Categorization in the Presence of Faces
Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies; Vancouver, BC — March 2008
Four-Month-Old Infants’ Categorization of Infant-Directed Speech When Viewing Female, Male and Scrambled Faces
Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in March 2007
Infants’ Attention to Auditory and Visual Stimuli
Presented at the American Psychological Society in May 2006
Infants’ Categorization of Dynamic Faces: Comparing Repeated and Fixed Trial Procedures
Presented at the American Psychological Society in May 2006
The Influence of Social Context on 4-month-olds’ Categorization of Infant-directed Speech
Presented at Society for Research and Human Development in 2006
The Effect of Motion on Infants’ Processing of Novel Faces
Presented at Society for Research and Human Development in 2006
Dynamic and Static Face study with 6-month-olds
Presented at Society for Research in Child Development in 2005
Dynamic Face Familiarity Study with 6- and 10-month-olds
Presented at the Cognitive Development Society in 2005
Infant-directed Speech Study with 4-month-olds
Presented at the Cognitive Development Society in 2005