InfantsÕ learning, memory, and generalization of learning for bimodal events Barbara A. Morrongiello, * Jennifer Lasenby, and Naomi Lee Psychology Department, University of Guelph, Guelph Ont., Canada N1G 2W1 Received 8 August 2001; revised 5 October 2002 Abstract Study 1 investigated whether infants 3 and 7 months of age show differential learning of and memory for sight–sound pairs depending on whether or not temporal synchrony was present; memory was assessed after a 10-min and 1-week interval. Study 2 examined whether 7-month- olds show generalization of learning when they encounter novel bimodal events that are similar (changes in size, orientation, or color, and spectral sound properties) to the sight–sound pairs learned 1 week earlier based on temporal synchrony. For Study 1, infants received a familiar- ization phase followed by a paired-comparison preference procedure to assess for learning of the sight–sound pairs. One week later a memory test was given. Results confirmed that 7- month-olds had no difficulty learning auditory–visual pairings regardless of whether or not events were temporally synchronous, and they remembered these 10 min and 1 week later. In contrast, 3-month-olds showed poorer learning of sight–sound associations in the no-syn- chrony than synchrony conditions, and memory for sight–sound pairs 1 week later was shown only for the synchrony conditions. Results for Study 2 revealed generalization of learning of bimodal pairings under all stimulus conditions after a 1-week interval at 7 months of age. Im- plications of these findings for development of intersensory knowledge are discussed. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. Keywords: Infant; Crossmodal; Learning; Memory During the past 25 years a great deal of research has focused on infant memory (e.g., see Rovee-Collier, 1997, 1999 for review). Newborn infants have been shown to remember auditory sequences for at least 24 h (Swain, Zelazo, & Clifton, 1993). J. Experimental Child Psychology 84 (2003) 1–19 www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp Journal of Experimental Child Psychology * Corresponding author. E-mail address: bmorrong@uoguelph.ca (B.A. Morrongiello). 0022-0965/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. PII:S0022-0965(02)00162-5