David Lewkowicz, PhD

David Lewkowicz's picture
Senior Scientist
Haskins Laboratories

 

Affiliation:

Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories

Professor Adjunct, Child Study Center & Department of Psychology, Yale University

 

Education:

BA (1974)  Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
PhD (1979) Biopsychology,  City University of New York, USA
Postdoc (1980) Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, New York, USA

 

Research Interests:

The research in my laboratory is concerned with perceptual and cognitive development in human infants and preschool children. The research has two primary foci (1) the development of multisensory perception and attention as it relates to object, speech, language, and social perception, and (2) the development of pattern/sequence learning.

 

Grants:

nsf bcs-1946115 development of selective attention to multisensory information in human infants (d. lewkowicz, pi/a-239)
nih grant hd-103931 converging behavioral and neural measures of attention in human infants (d. lewkowicz, pi/a-248)
nsf grant hd-2122781 development of attention in preschool children  (d. lewkowicz, pi/a-249)

 

Publications:

Lewkowicz, D. J., Schmuckler, & M., Agrawal, V.  (2022). The multisensory cocktail party problem in early childhood: Audiovisual temporal synchrony facilitates perceptual segregation of multiple talking faces in 3-7 year-old children. Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105226.

Birulés, J., Martinez‐Alvarez, A., Lewkowicz, D. J., de Diego‐Balaguer, R., & Pons, F. (2022). Violation of non‐adjacent rule dependencies elicits greater attention to a talker’s mouth in 15‐month‐old infants. Infancy1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12489.

Chawarska, K., Lewkowicz, D. J., Feiner, H. , Macari, S., & Vernetti, A. (2022). Attention to audiovisual speech facilitates language acquisition in infants at low risk for but not in infants at high risk for autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.https://doi:10.1111/jcpp.13595   

Lewkowicz, D. J., Schmuckler, & M., Agrawal, V.  (2021). The multisensory cocktail party problem in adults: Perceptual segregation of talking faces on the basis of audiovisual temporal synchrony. Cognition, 214, 104743.

Santapuram, P., Feldman, J. I., Bowman, S. M., Raj, S., Suzman, E., Crowley, S., Kim, S. Y., Keceli-Kaysili, B., Bottema-Beutel, K., Lewkowicz, D. J., Wallace, M. T., Woynaroski, T. G. (2022). Mechanisms by which early eye gaze to the multisensory speech influences expressive communication development in infant siblings of children with and without autism. Mind, Brain, & Educationhttps://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12310.

Lewkowicz, D. J. Masks can be detrimental to babies’ speech and language development: the good news is that parents can take action to compensate. Scientific American, Feb. 11, 2021 (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/masks-can-be-detrimental-to-babies-speech-and-language-development1/)

Dunham, K., Feldman, J. I., Liu, Y., Cassidy, M., Conrad, J. G., Santapuram, P., Suzman, E., Tu , A., Butera, I., Simon, D. M., Broderick, N., Wallace, M. T., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Woynaroski, T. (2020). Stability of Variables Derived From Measures of Multisensory Function in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 125(4), 287-303.

Birulés, J., Bosch, L., Pons, F., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2020). Highly proficient L2 speakers still need to attend to a talker’s mouth when processing L2 speech. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1-12.

Durand, K., Schaal, B., Goubet, N., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Baudouin, J-Y. (2020). Does any mother’s body odor stimulate interest in mother’s face in 4‐month‐old infants? Infancy, 25 (2), 151-164.

Pons, F., Bosch, L., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2019). Twelve-month-old infants’ attention to the eyes of a talking face is associated with communication and social skills. Infant Behavior & Development, 54, 80-84.

Birules, J., Bosch, L., Brieke, R., Pons, F., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2018). Inside bilingualism: Language background modulates selective attention to a talker’s mouth. Developmental Science. e12755. doi:doi:10.1111/desc.12755

Hillairet de Boisferon, A., Tift, A. H., Minar, N. J., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2018). The redeployment of attention to the mouth of a talking face in the second year of life.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.03.009

Werchan, D. M., Baumgartner, H. A., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Amso, D. (2018). The origins of cortical multisensory dynamics: Evidence from human infants. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 34, DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.07.002.

Lewkowicz, D. J., Schmuckler, M. A., & Mangalindan, D. M. J. (2018). Learning of hierarchical serial patterns emerges in infancy. Developmental Psychobiology. doi:10.1002/dev.21614.

Minar, N. & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2017). Overcoming the other-race effect in infancy with multisensory redundancy: 10–12-month-olds discriminate dynamic other-race faces producing speech. Developmental Science. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12604.

Richoz, A. R., Quinn, P. C., Hillairet de Boisferon, A., Berger, C., Loevenbruck, H., Lewkowicz, D. J.,Lee, K., Dole, M., Caldara, R., Pascalis, O. (2017). Audio-visual perception of gender by infants emerges earlier for adult-directed speech. PloS One, 12(1), e0169325. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169325.

Murray, M. M., Lewkowicz, D. J., Amedi, A., & Wallace, M. T. (2016). Multisensory Processes: A Balancing Act across the Lifespan. Trends in Neurosciences. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2016.05.003

Hillairet de Boisferon, A., Tift, A.H., Minar, N. J., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2016). Selective attention to a talker’s mouth in infancy: Role of audiovisual temporal synchrony and linguistic experience. Developmental Science. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12381

Barenholtz, E., Mavica, L., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2016). Language familiarity modulates relative attention to the eyes and mouth of a talker. Cognition, 147, 100-105. 

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2015). Obituary: Gerald Turkewitz. Infancy. DOI:10.1111/infa.12122.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2015). In Memoriam: Gerald Turkewitz & his Science. Developmental Psychobiology. DOI 10.1002/dev.21363

Hillairet de Boisferon, A., Dupierrix, E., Quinn, P. C., Lœvenbruck, H., Lewkowicz, D. J., Lee, K., & Pascalis, O. (2015). Perception of multisensory gender coherence in 6 and 9-month-old infants. Infancy. 20(6), 661–674.

Miller, S. E., Marcovitch, S., Boseovski, J. J., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2015). Young children’s ability to use ordinal labels in a spatial memory search task. Merill Palmer Quarterly. 20(6), 661–674.

Pons, F., Bosch, L., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2015). Bilingualism modulates infants’ selective attention to the mouth of a talking face. Psychological Science, 26(4), 490-498.

Lewkowicz, D. J., Minar, N. J., Tift, A. H., & Brandon, M. (2015). Perception of the multisensory coherence of fluent audiovisual speech in infancy: Its emergence and the role of experience. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 130, 147–162.

Barenholtz, E., Lewkowicz, D. J., Davidson, M., & Mavica, L. (2014). Categorical congruence facilitates multisensory associative learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-7. 

Pons, F. & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2014). Infant perception of audio-visual speech synchrony in familiar and unfamiliar fluent speech. Acta Psychologica, 149, 142–147.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Minar, N. J. (2014). Infants are not sensitive to synesthetic cross-modality correspondences: A comment on Walker et al. (2010). Psychological Science, 25 (3), 832-834.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2014). Early experience & multisensory perceptual narrowing. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(2), 292-315.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Flom, R. (2014). The audio-visual temporal binding window narrows in early childhood. Child Development, 85(2), 685-694.

Durand, K., Baudouin, J-Y, Lewkowicz, D. J., Goubet, N., & Schaal. B. (2013). Eye-catching odors: Olfaction elicits sustained gazing to faces and eyes in 4 month-old infants. PLoS ONE, 8, e70677.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2013). Development of ordinal sequence perception in infancy. Developmental Science, 16, 352-364.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Pons, F. (2013). Recognition of amodal language identity emerges in infancy. Intl. J. of Behavioral Development, 37(2), 90-94.

Pons, F., Sanz-Torrent, M., Andreu, L., Buil, L., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2013). Perception of audio-visual speech synchrony in children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Child Language, 40, 687-700.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Hansen-Tift, A. (2012). Infants deploy selective attention to the mouth of a talking face when learning speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 109(5), 1431-1436.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2012). The development of the uncanny valley in infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 54(2), 124–132.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2011). The biological implausibility of the nature-nurture dichotomy and what it means for the study of infancy, Infancy, 16(4), 331-367.

Stein, B. E., Burr, D., Constantinidis, C., Laurienti, P. J., Meredith, M. A., Perrault, T. J., Jr., Ramachandran, R., Röder, B., Rowland, B. A., Sathian, K., Schroeder, C. E., Shams, L., Stanford, R. R., Wallace, M. T., Yu, L., Lewkowicz, D. J. (2010). Semantic confusion regarding the development of multisensory integration: A practical solution. European Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 1713–1720.

Lewkowicz, D. J., Leo, I., & Simion, F. (2010). Intersensory perception at birth: Newborns match nonhuman primate faces and voices. Infancy, 15, 46-60.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2010). Infant perception of audio-visual speech synchrony. Developmental Psychology, 46(1) pp. 66-77.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2009). The emergence of multisensory systems through perceptual narrowing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(11), 470-478.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Berent, I. (2009). Sequence learning in infants: Do 4-month-old infants represent ordinal information? Child Development, 80, 1811-1823.

Pons, F., Lewkowicz, D. J., Sebastian-Galles, N., & Soto-Faraco, S. (2009).  Narrowing of intersensory speech perception in infancyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106 (26), 10598.

Marcovitch, S. & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2009). Sequence learning in infancy: The independent contributions of conditional probability and pair frequency information. Developmental Science, 12, 1020-1025.

Zangenehpour, S., Ghazanfar, A. A. Lewkowicz, D. J., & Zatorre, R. J. (2009). Heterochrony and cross-species intersensory matching by infant vervet monkeys. PLoS One, Vol. 4 (1) pp. e4302.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2008). Perception of dynamic & static audiovisual sequences in 3- and 4-month-old infants. Child Development, 79, 1538-1554.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Sowinski, R., & Place, S. (2008). The decline of cross-species intersensory perception in human infants: Underlying mechanisms & its developmental persistence. Brain Research, 1242, 291-302.

Neil, P. A., Chee-Ruiter, C., Scheier, C., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Shimojo, S. (2006). Development of multisensory spatial integration and perception in humans. Developmental Science, 9, 454-464.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2006). The decline of cross-species intersensory perception in human infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 103, 6771-6774.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Marcovitch, S. (2006). Perception of audiovisual rhythm and its invariance in 4- to 10-month-old infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 48, 288-300.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2004). Serial order processing in human infants and the role of multisensory redundancy. Cognitive Processing, 5, 113-120.

Marcovitch, S. & Lewkowicz, D. J. (2004). U-Shaped functions: Artifact or hallmark of development? Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 113-118.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2004). Perception of serial order in infants. Developmental Science, 7, 175-184.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2003). Learning and discrimination of audiovisual events in human infants: The hierarchical relation between intersensory temporal synchrony and rhythmic pattern cues. Developmental Psychology, 39(5), 795-804.

Scheier, C., Lewkowicz, D. J., Shimojo, S. (2003). To bounce or not to bounce? A reply to Slater. Developmental Science, 6, 243-244.

Scheier, C., Lewkowicz, D. J., Shimojo, S. (2003). Sound induces perceptual reorganization of an ambiguous motion display in human infants. Developmental Science, 6, 233-244.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2002). Heterogeneity and heterochrony in the development of intersensory perception. Cognitive Brain Research, 14, 41-63.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2001). The concept of ecological validity: What are its limitations and is it bad to be invalid? Infancy, 2(4), 437-450.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Scheier, C. (2001). Situating situated multimodal perception: The relevance of global arrays to development. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 225-226.

Brookes, H., Slater, A., Quinn, P. C., Lewkowicz, D. J., Hayes, R. & Brown, E. (2001). Three-month-old infants learn arbitrary auditory-visual pairings between voices and faces. Infant and Child Development, 10, 75-82.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2001). Word comprehension and intersensory perception: Putting the cart before the horse? Developmental Science, 4, 19-21.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2000). Perceptual development in human infants. Invited book review of “Perceptual Development”, A. Slater (Ed). American Journal of Psychology, 113(3), 488-499.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2000). Infants’ perception of the audible, visible and bimodal attributes of multimodal syllables. Child Development, 71, 1241-1257.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (2000). Development of intersensory temporal perception: An epigenetic systems/limitations view. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 281-308.

Freedland, R., Karmel, B. Z., Gardner, J.M., & Lewkowicz, D.J. (1998). Prenatal cocaine exposure and stimulus-seeking behaviors between 4- and 10-months: A continuation of poor arousal regulation as neonates. Cocaine: Effects on the developing brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 846.

Lewkowicz, D. J., Karmel, B. Z. & Gardner, J. M. (1998). Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on responsiveness to multimodal information in infants between 4 and 10 months of age. Cocaine: Effects on the developing brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 846.

Columbus, R. F., Sleigh, M. J., Lickliter, R., & Lewkowicz, D. J. (1998). Unimodal sensory experience interferes with responsiveness to the spatial contiguity of multimodal maternal cues in bobwhite quail chicks. Infant Behavior & Development, 21, 397-409.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1998). Infants’ response to the audible and visible properties of the human face: II. Discrimination of differences between singing and adult-directed speech. Developmental Psychobiology, 32, 261-274.

Lickliter, R., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Columbus, R. F. (1996). Intersensory experience and early perceptual development: The role of spatial contiguity in bobwhite quail chicks’ responsiveness to multimodal maternal cues. Developmental Psychobiology, 29, 403-416.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1996). Perception of auditory-visual temporal synchrony in human infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 22, 1094-1106.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1996). Infants’ response to the audible and visible properties of the human face: I. Role of lexical/syntactic content, temporal synchrony, gender, and manner of speech. Developmental Psychology, 32, 347-366.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Lickliter, R.(1995). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action: Book review. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 512-514.

Lickliter, R. & Lewkowicz, D. J. (1995). Intersensory experience and early perceptual development: Attenuated prenatal sensory stimulation affects postnatal auditory and visual responsiveness in bobwhite quail chicks. Developmental Psychology, 31, 609-618.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1994).  Reflections on infants’ response to temporally based intersensory equivalence: Response to Spelke.  Infant Behavior and Development, 17, 287-290.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1994).  Limitations on infants’ response to rate-based auditory-visual relations. Developmental Psychology, 30, 880-892 .

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1993).  Le rôle des indices spécifiques de modalité dans la perception des équivalences intermodales chez les bébés. Psychologie Française, 38(1), 33-40.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1992).  Infant responsiveness to the auditory and visual attributes of a sounding/moving stimulus. Perception & Psychophysics, 52, 519-528.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1992).  Infants’ response to temporally-based intersensory equivalence: The effect of synchronous sounds on visual preferences for moving stimuli. Infant Behavior and Development, 15, 297-324.

Gorski, P.A., Huntington L., & Lewkowicz, D.J., (1990). Handling preterm infants in hospitals. Stimulating controversy about timing of stimulation. Clinical Perinatology, 17(1), 103-112.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1988). Sensory dominance in infants II: Ten-month-old infants’ response to auditory-visual compounds. Developmental Psychology, 24, 172-182.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1988). Sensory dominance in infants I: Six-month-old infants’ response to auditory-visual compounds. Developmental Psychology, 24, 155-171. 

Gorski, P. A., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Huntington, L.  (1987). Advances in neonatal and infant behavioral assessment: toward a comprehensive evaluation of early patterns of development. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 8, 39-50. 

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1986). Developmental changes in infants’ bisensory response to synchronous durations.  Infant Behavior and Development, 9, 335-353.

Gardner, J. M., Lewkowicz, D. J., Rose, S. A., & Karmel, B. Z.  (1986). Effects of visual and auditory stimulation on subsequent visual preferences in neonates. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 9, 251-263.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1985). Developmental changes in infants’ response to temporal frequency.  Developmental Psychology, 21, 858-865.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1985). Bisensory response to temporal frequency in 4-month-old infants.  Developmental Psychology, 21, 306-317.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Turkewitz, G.  (1982). Influence of hemispheric specialization in sensory processing on reaching in infants: Age and gender related effects.  Developmental Psychology, 18, 301-308.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Turkewitz, G.  (1981). Intersensory interaction in newborns: Modification of visual preferences following exposure to sound. Child Development, 52, 827-832.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Turkewitz, G. (1980).  Cross-modal equivalence in early infancy: auditory-visual intensity matching. Developmental Psychology, 16, 597-607.

Lewkowicz, D. J. (1980). A method for adapting headphones for use with infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 3, 283-284.

Lewkowicz, D. J., Gardner, J., & Turkewitz, G.  (1979). Lateral differences and head turning responses to somesthetic stimulation in premature human infants.  Developmental Psychobiology, 12, 607-614.

Gardner, J., Lewkowicz, D. J., & Turkewitz, G.  (1977). Development of postural asymmetry in premature infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 10, 471-480.

Edited Books:

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Lickliter, R. (Eds.).  Development of Intersensory Perception: Comparative Perspectives, Norwood, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994.

Lewkowicz, D. J. & Lickliter, R. (Eds.). Conceptions of Development: Lessons from the Laboratory, Psychological Press, 2002.

Bremner, A. J., Lewkowicz, D. J., Spence, C. (Eds.). Multisensory Development. Oxford University Press. 2012. 

Stein, B. (Ed.). The New Handbook of Multisensory Processing. Lewkowicz, D. J. & King, A. J. (Section editors: Development, Plasticity, and Evolution). MIT Press. 2012.

Links: 

Language Learning & Multisensory Brain Lab

Research Gate