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Estrada KA, Govindaraj S, Abdi H, Moraglia LE, Wolff JJ, Meera SS, Dager SR, McKinstry RC, Styner MA, Zwaigenbaum L, Piven J, Swanson MR. Language exposure during infancy is negatively associated with white matter microstructure in the arcuate fasciculus. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 61:101240. [PMID: 37060675 PMCID: PMC10130606 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2022] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 04/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Decades of research have established that the home language environment, especially quality of caregiver speech, supports language acquisition during infancy. However, the neural mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain under studied. In the current study, we examined associations between the home language environment and structural coherence of white matter tracts in 52 typically developing infants from English speaking homes in a western society. Infants participated in at least one MRI brain scan when they were 3, 6, 12, and/or 24 months old. Home language recordings were collected when infants were 9 and/or 15 months old. General linear regression models indicated that infants who heard the most adult words and participated in the most conversational turns at 9 months of age also had the lowest fractional anisotropy in the left posterior parieto-temporal arcuate fasciculus at 24 months. Similarly, infants who vocalized the most at 9 months also had the lowest fractional anisotropy in the same tract at 6 months of age. This is one of the first studies to report significant associations between caregiver speech collected in the home and white matter structural coherence in the infant brain. The results are in line with prior work showing that protracted white matter development during infancy confers a cognitive advantage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katiana A Estrada
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA; Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA
| | - Sharnya Govindaraj
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA
| | - Hervé Abdi
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA
| | - Luke E Moraglia
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA
| | - Jason J Wolff
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Shoba Sreenath Meera
- Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
| | - Stephen R Dager
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Robert C McKinstry
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Martin A Styner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Lonnie Zwaigenbaum
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB T6G 2R3, Canada
| | - Joseph Piven
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Meghan R Swanson
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.
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2
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Levin-Asher B, Segal O, Kishon-Rabin L. The validity of LENA technology for assessing the linguistic environment and interactions of infants learning Hebrew and Arabic. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:1480-1495. [PMID: 35668342 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01874-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The present study assessed LENA's suitability as a tool for monitoring future language interventions by evaluating its reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity in infants learning Hebrew and Arabic, across low and high levels of maternal education. Participants were 32 infants aged 3 to 11 months (16 in each language) and their mothers, whose socioeconomic status (SES) was determined based on their years of education (H-high or L-low ME-maternal education). The results showed (1) good reliability for the LENA's automatic count on adult word count (AWC), conversational turns (CTC), and infant vocalizations (CVC), based on the positive associations and fair to excellent agreement between the manual and automatic counts; (2) good construct validity based on significantly higher counts for HME vs. LME and positive associations between LENA's automatic vocal assessment (AVA) and developmental questionnaire (DA) and age; and (3) good concurrent criterion validity based on the positive associations between the LENA counts for CTC, CVC, AVA, and DA and the scores on the preverbal parent questionnaire (PRISE). The present study supports the use of LENA in early intervention programs for infants whose families speak Hebrew or Arabic. The LENA could be used to monitor the efficacy of these programs as well as to provide feedback to parents on the amount of language experience their infants are getting and their progress in vocal production. The results also indicate a potential utility of LENA in assessing linguistic environments and interactions in Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking infants with developmental disorders, such as hearing impairment and cerebral palsy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bonnie Levin-Asher
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
| | - Osnat Segal
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
| | - Liat Kishon-Rabin
- Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
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3
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Mallikarjun A, Shroads E, Newman RS. Language preference in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Anim Cogn 2023; 26:451-463. [PMID: 36064831 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01683-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Revised: 08/16/2022] [Accepted: 08/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Abstract
Studies have shown that both cotton-top tamarins as well as rats can discriminate between two languages based on rhythmic cues. This is similar to the capabilities of young infants, who also rely on rhythmic cues to differentiate between languages. However, the animals in these studies did not have long-term language exposure, so these studies did not specifically assess the role of language experience. In this study, we used companion dogs, who have prolonged exposure to human language in their home environment. These dogs came from homes where either English or Spanish was primarily spoken. The dogs were then presented with speech in English and in Spanish in a Headturn Preference Procedure paradigm to examine their language discrimination abilities as well as their language preferences. Dogs successfully discriminated between the two languages. In addition, dogs showed a novelty effect with their language preference such that Spanish-hearing dogs listened longer to English, and English-hearing dogs listened longer to Spanish. It is unclear what particular cue dogs are utilizing to discriminate between the two languages; future studies should explore dogs' utilization of phonological and rhythmic cues for language discrimination.
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4
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van der Hulst M, Kok R, Prinzie P, Steegers EAP, Bertens LCM. Early Maternal Caregiving Capacities in Highly Vulnerable, Multi-Problem Families. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:16130. [PMID: 36498211 PMCID: PMC9738820 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192316130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Revised: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Caregiving capacities may be an important link between multi-problem circumstances and adverse child development. This study aims to assess caregiving capacities and their correlations in highly vulnerable, multi-problem families in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Caregiving capacity (overall, emotional and instrumental) was prospectively assessed in 83 highly vulnerable women using video-observations of daily caregiving tasks, six week postpartum. Supporting data were collected at three time points: at inclusion, six weeks after inclusion and six weeks postpartum, and these included psychological symptoms, self-sufficiency, problematic life domains, home environment, income, depression, anxiety and stress. Pregnancy- and delivery-related information was collected from obstetric care professionals. Maternal caregiving scores averaged below adequate quality. Mothers living in an unsafe home environment (B = 0.62) and mothers with more problematic life domains (≤3 domains, B = 0.32) showed significantly higher instrumental caregiving capacities. Other variables were not related to caregiving capacities. Caregiving capacity in this highly vulnerable population was below adequate quality. However, in most cases there was no significant association between caregiving and the variables related to vulnerability. This means that a potential association between vulnerability and caregiving capacities might be driven by the interaction between several problems, rather than the type or number of problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marije van der Hulst
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Postbus 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Research Group Transforming Youth Care, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 2521 EN The Hague, The Netherlands
| | - Rianne Kok
- Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Peter Prinzie
- Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Eric A. P. Steegers
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Postbus 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Loes C. M. Bertens
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Postbus 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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5
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Casillas M. Learning language in vivo. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marisa Casillas
- Department of Comparative Human Development University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA
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6
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Acoustic regularities in infant-directed speech and song across cultures. Nat Hum Behav 2022; 6:1545-1556. [PMID: 35851843 PMCID: PMC10101735 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01410-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/10/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
When interacting with infants, humans often alter their speech and song in ways thought to support communication. Theories of human child-rearing, informed by data on vocal signalling across species, predict that such alterations should appear globally. Here, we show acoustic differences between infant-directed and adult-directed vocalizations across cultures. We collected 1,615 recordings of infant- and adult-directed speech and song produced by 410 people in 21 urban, rural and small-scale societies. Infant-directedness was reliably classified from acoustic features only, with acoustic profiles of infant-directedness differing across language and music but in consistent fashions. We then studied listener sensitivity to these acoustic features. We played the recordings to 51,065 people from 187 countries, recruited via an English-language website, who guessed whether each vocalization was infant-directed. Their intuitions were more accurate than chance, predictable in part by common sets of acoustic features and robust to the effects of linguistic relatedness between vocalizer and listener. These findings inform hypotheses of the psychological functions and evolution of human communication.
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7
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Roth KC, Clayton KRH, Reynolds GD. Infant selective attention to native and non-native audiovisual speech. Sci Rep 2022; 12:15781. [PMID: 36138107 PMCID: PMC9500058 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19704-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The current study utilized eye-tracking to investigate the effects of intersensory redundancy and language on infant visual attention and detection of a change in prosody in audiovisual speech. Twelve-month-old monolingual English-learning infants viewed either synchronous (redundant) or asynchronous (non-redundant) presentations of a woman speaking in native or non-native speech. Halfway through each trial, the speaker changed prosody from infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS) or vice versa. Infants focused more on the mouth of the speaker on IDS trials compared to ADS trials regardless of language or intersensory redundancy. Additionally, infants demonstrated greater detection of prosody changes from IDS speech to ADS speech in native speech. Planned comparisons indicated that infants detected prosody changes across a broader range of conditions during redundant stimulus presentations. These findings shed light on the influence of language and prosody on infant attention and highlight the complexity of audiovisual speech processing in infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly C Roth
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA
- Data Scientist at 84.51°, Cincinnati, OH, 45202, USA
| | - Kenna R H Clayton
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA
| | - Greg D Reynolds
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
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8
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Sun L, Griep CD, Yoshida H. Shared Multimodal Input Through Social Coordination: Infants With Monolingual and Bilingual Learning Experiences. Front Psychol 2022; 13:745904. [PMID: 35519632 PMCID: PMC9066094 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.745904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing number of children in the United States are exposed to multiple languages at home from birth. However, relatively little is known about the early process of word learning—how words are mapped to the referent in their child-centered learning experiences. The present study defined parental input operationally as the integrated and multimodal learning experiences as an infant engages with his/her parent in an interactive play session with objects. By using a head-mounted eye tracking device, we recorded visual scenes from the infant’s point of view, along with the parent’s social input with respect to gaze, labeling, and actions of object handling. Fifty-one infants and toddlers (aged 6–18 months) from an English monolingual or a diverse bilingual household were recruited to observe the early multimodal learning experiences in an object play session. Despite that monolingual parents spoke more and labeled more frequently relative to bilingual parents, infants from both language groups benefit from a comparable amount of socially coordinated experiences where parents name the object while the object is looked at by the infant. Also, a sequential path analysis reveals multiple social coordinated pathways that facilitate infant object looking. Specifically, young children’s attention to the referent objects is directly influenced by parent’s object handling. These findings point to the new approach to early language input and how multimodal learning experiences are coordinated socially for young children growing up with monolingual and bilingual learning contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lichao Sun
- Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Christina D Griep
- Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Hanako Yoshida
- Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
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9
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Schick J, Fryns C, Wegdell F, Laporte M, Zuberbühler K, van Schaik CP, Townsend SW, Stoll S. The function and evolution of child-directed communication. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001630. [PMID: 35522717 PMCID: PMC9116647 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans communicate with small children in unusual and highly conspicuous ways (child-directed communication (CDC)), which enhance social bonding and facilitate language acquisition. CDC-like inputs are also reported for some vocally learning animals, suggesting similar functions in facilitating communicative competence. However, adult great apes, our closest living relatives, rarely signal to their infants, implicating communication surrounding the infant as the main input for infant great apes and early humans. Given cross-cultural variation in the amount and structure of CDC, we suggest that child-surrounding communication (CSC) provides essential compensatory input when CDC is less prevalent-a paramount topic for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Schick
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Caroline Fryns
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Cognition, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Franziska Wegdell
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Marion Laporte
- Histoire naturelle de l’Homme préhistorique, UMR 7194, PaleoFED, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
- Institut des Sciences du Calcul et des Données, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Cognition, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Carel P. van Schaik
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Simon W. Townsend
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom
| | - Sabine Stoll
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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10
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Ceren B, Gaye S. EXPRESS: Adult listeners can extract age-related cues from child-directed speech. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2022; 75:2244-2255. [PMID: 35272517 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221089634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated adult listeners' ability to detect age-related cues in child-directed speech (CDS). Participants (N = 186) listened to two speech recordings directed at children between the ages of 6 to 44 months and guessed which had addressed a younger or an older child. The recordings came from North American English-speaking mothers and listeners were native speakers of Turkish with varying degrees of English knowledge. Participants were randomly assigned to listen either to the original recordings or to the low-pass filtered versions. Accuracy was above chance level across all groups. Participants' English level, age and the age difference between the addressees significantly predicted accuracy. After controlling for these variables, we found a significant effect of condition. Participants' accuracy tended to be better in the unfiltered condition with the exception of male participants without children. These results suggest that age-related variations in child-directed speech are perceptually available to adult listeners. Further, even though sensitivity to the age-related cues is facilitated by the availability of content-related cues in speech, it does not seem to be solely dependent on these cues, providing further support for the form-function relations in CDS.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Soley Gaye
- Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey 52949
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11
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Long HL, Ramsay G, Griebel U, Bene ER, Bowman DD, Burkhardt-Reed MM, Oller DK. Perspectives on the origin of language: Infants vocalize most during independent vocal play but produce their most speech-like vocalizations during turn taking. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0279395. [PMID: 36584126 PMCID: PMC9803194 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing body of research emphasizes both endogenous and social motivations in human vocal development. Our own efforts seek to establish an evolutionary and developmental perspective on the existence and usage of speech-like vocalizations ("protophones") in the first year of life. We evaluated the relative occurrence of protophones in 40 typically developing infants across the second-half year based on longitudinal all-day recordings. Infants showed strong endogenous motivation to vocalize, producing vastly more protophones during independent vocal exploration and play than during vocal turn taking. Both periods of vocal play and periods of turn-taking corresponded to elevated levels of the most advanced protophones (canonical babbling) relative to periods without vocal play or without turn-taking. Notably, periods of turn taking showed even more canonical babbling than periods of vocal play. We conclude that endogenous motivation drives infants' tendencies to explore and display a great number of speech-like vocalizations, but that social interaction drives the production of the most speech-like forms. The results inform our previously published proposal that the human infant has been naturally selected to explore protophone production and that the exploratory inclination in our hominin ancestors formed a foundation for language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen L. Long
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Gordon Ramsay
- Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
- Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Ulrike Griebel
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Edina R. Bene
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Dale D. Bowman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Department of Mathematics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Megan M. Burkhardt-Reed
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - D. Kimbrough Oller
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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12
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Falk S, Audibert N. Acoustic signatures of communicative dimensions in codified mother-infant interactions. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 150:4429. [PMID: 34972287 DOI: 10.1121/10.0008977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Nursery rhymes, lullabies, or traditional stories are pieces of oral tradition that constitute an integral part of communication between caregivers and preverbal infants. Caregivers use a distinct acoustic style when singing or narrating to their infants. Unlike spontaneous infant-directed (ID) interactions, codified interactions benefit from highly stable acoustics due to their repetitive character. The aim of the study was to determine whether specific combinations of acoustic traits (i.e., vowel pitch, duration, spectral structure, and their variability) form characteristic "signatures" of different communicative dimensions during codified interactions, such as vocalization type, interactive stimulation, and infant-directedness. Bayesian analysis, applied to over 14 000 vowels from codified live interactions between mothers and their 6-months-old infants, showed that a few acoustic traits prominently characterize arousing vs calm interactions and sung vs spoken interactions. While pitch and duration and their variation played a prominent role in constituting these signatures, more linguistic aspects such as vowel clarity showed small or no effects. Infant-directedness was identifiable in a larger set of acoustic cues than the other dimensions. These findings provide insights into the functions of acoustic variation of ID communication and into the potential role of codified interactions for infants' learning about communicative intent and expressive forms typical of language and music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Falk
- Département de Linguistique et de traduction, Université de Montréal, 3150, rue Jean-Brillant, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 1N8, Canada
| | - Nicolas Audibert
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, UMR7018, CNRS/Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, 19 Rue des Bernardins, Paris, 75005, France
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13
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McClay EK, Cebioglu S, Broesch T, Yeung HH. Rethinking the phonetics of baby-talk: Differences across Canada and Vanuatu in the articulation of mothers' speech to infants. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13180. [PMID: 34633716 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 09/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Infant-directed speech (IDS) is phonetically distinct from adult-directed speech (ADS): It is typically considered to have special prosody-like higher pitch and slower speaking rates-as well as unique speech sound properties, for example, more breathy, hyperarticulated, and/or variable consonant and vowel articulation. These phonetic features are widely observed in the IDS of caregivers from urbanized contexts who speak a handful of very well-researched languages. Yet studies with more diverse socio-cultural and linguistic samples show that this "typical" IDS prosody is not consistently observed across cultures. We extended cross-cultural work by examining IDS speech segment articulation, which-like prosody-is also thought to be a characteristic phonetic feature of IDS that might aid speech and language development. Here we asked whether IDS vowels have different articulatory features compared to ADS vowels in two distinct linguistic and socio-cultural contexts: urban English-speaking Canadian mothers, and rural Lenakel- and Southwest Tanna-speaking ni-Vanuatu mothers (n = 57, 20-46 years of age). Replicating prior work, Canadian mothers had more variable vowels in IDS compared to ADS, but also did not show clear register differences for breathiness or hyperarticulation. Vowels spoken by ni-Vanuatu mothers showed very distinct articulatory tendencies, using less variable (and less breathy) IDS vowels. Along with other work showing diversity in IDS phonetics across populations, this paper suggests that any understanding of how IDS might aid speech and language development are best examined through a culturally- and linguistically-specific lens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise K McClay
- Department of Linguistics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| | - Senay Cebioglu
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.,Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Tanya Broesch
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - H Henny Yeung
- Department of Linguistics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.,Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, UMR 8002, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) & Université de Paris, Paris, 75006, France
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14
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Soderstrom M, Casillas M, Gornik M, Bouchard A, MacEwan S, Shokrkon A, Bunce J. English-Speaking Adults' Labeling of Child- and Adult-Directed Speech Across Languages and Its Relationship to Perception of Affect. Front Psychol 2021; 12:708887. [PMID: 34539509 PMCID: PMC8440885 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Child-directed speech, as a specialized form of speech directed toward young children, has been found across numerous languages around the world and has been suggested as a universal feature of human experience. However, variation in its implementation and the extent to which it is culturally supported has called its universality into question. Child-directed speech has also been posited to be associated with expression of positive affect or “happy talk.” Here, we examined Canadian English-speaking adults' ability to discriminate child-directed from adult-directed speech samples from two dissimilar language/cultural communities; an urban Farsi-speaking population, and a rural, horticulturalist Tseltal Mayan speaking community. We also examined the relationship between participants' addressee classification and ratings of positive affect. Naive raters could successfully classify CDS in Farsi, but only trained raters were successful with the Tseltal Mayan sample. Associations with some affective ratings were found for the Farsi samples, but not reliably for happy speech. These findings point to a complex relationship between perception of affect and CDS, and context-specific effects on the ability to classify CDS across languages.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marisa Casillas
- Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Megan Gornik
- Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
| | - Alexis Bouchard
- Département d'Éducation, Université de Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
| | - Sarah MacEwan
- Department of Audiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Anahita Shokrkon
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - John Bunce
- Department of Human Development and Women's Studies, California State University East Bay, East Bay, CA, United States
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15
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Shapiro NT, Hippe DS, Ramírez NF. How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:3242-3252. [PMID: 34324822 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Fathers play a critical but underresearched role in their children's cognitive and linguistic development. Focusing on two-parent families with a mother and a father, the present longitudinal study explores the amount of paternal input infants hear during the first 2 years of life, how this input changes over time, and how it relates to child volubility. We devote special attention to parentese, a near-universal style of infant-directed speech, distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Method We examined the daylong recordings of the same 23 infants at ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, given English-speaking families. The infants were recorded in the presence of their parents (mother-father dyads), who were predominantly White and ranged from mid to high socioeconomic status (SES). We analyzed the effects of parent gender and child age on adult word counts and parentese, as well as the effects of maternal and paternal word counts and parentese on child vocalizations. Results On average, the infants were exposed to 46.8% fewer words and 51.9% less parentese from fathers than from mothers, even though paternal parentese grew at a 2.8-times faster rate as the infants aged. An asymmetry emerged where maternal word counts and paternal parentese predicted child vocalizations, but paternal word counts and maternal parentese did not. Conclusions While infants may hear less input from their fathers than their mothers in predominantly White, mid-to-high SES, English-speaking households, paternal parentese still plays a unique role in their linguistic development. Future research on sources of variability in child language outcomes should thus control for parental differences since parents' language can differ substantially and differentially predict child language.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel S Hippe
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Naja Ferjan Ramírez
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
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16
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Byers-Heinlein K, Tsui ASM, Bergmann C, Black AK, Brown A, Carbajal MJ, Durrant S, Fennell CT, Fiévet AC, Frank MC, Gampe A, Gervain J, Gonzalez-Gomez N, Hamlin JK, Havron N, Hernik M, Kerr S, Killam H, Klassen K, Kosie JE, Kovács ÁM, Lew-Williams C, Liu L, Mani N, Marino C, Mastroberardino M, Mateu V, Noble C, Orena AJ, Polka L, Potter CE, Schreiner M, Singh L, Soderstrom M, Sundara M, Waddell C, Werker JF, Wermelinger S. A multi-lab study of bilingual infants: Exploring the preference for infant-directed speech. ADVANCES IN METHODS AND PRACTICES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2021; 4:10.1177/2515245920974622. [PMID: 35821764 PMCID: PMC9273003 DOI: 10.1177/2515245920974622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/28/2023]
Abstract
From the earliest months of life, infants prefer listening to and learn better from infant-directed speech (IDS) than adult-directed speech (ADS). Yet, IDS differs within communities, across languages, and across cultures, both in form and in prevalence. This large-scale, multi-site study used the diversity of bilingual infant experiences to explore the impact of different types of linguistic experience on infants' IDS preference. As part of the multi-lab ManyBabies 1 project, we compared lab-matched samples of 333 bilingual and 385 monolingual infants' preference for North-American English IDS (cf. ManyBabies Consortium, 2020: ManyBabies 1), tested in 17 labs in 7 countries. Those infants were tested in two age groups: 6-9 months (the younger sample) and 12-15 months (the older sample). We found that bilingual and monolingual infants both preferred IDS to ADS, and did not differ in terms of the overall magnitude of this preference. However, amongst bilingual infants who were acquiring North-American English (NAE) as a native language, greater exposure to NAE was associated with a stronger IDS preference, extending the previous finding from ManyBabies 1 that monolinguals learning NAE as a native language showed a stronger preference than infants unexposed to NAE. Together, our findings indicate that IDS preference likely makes a similar contribution to monolingual and bilingual development, and that infants are exquisitely sensitive to the nature and frequency of different types of language input in their early environments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Judit Gervain
- Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (INCC), CNRS & Université Paris Descartes
| | | | | | | | | | - Shila Kerr
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Caterina Marino
- Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (INCC), CNRS & Université Paris Descartes
| | | | | | | | | | - Linda Polka
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
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17
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Cameron-Faulkner T, Malik N, Steele C, Coretta S, Serratrice L, Lieven E. A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Early Prelinguistic Gesture Development and Its Relationship to Language Development. Child Dev 2020; 92:273-290. [PMID: 32757217 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Many Western industrialized nations have high levels of ethnic diversity but to date there are very few studies which investigate prelinguistic and early language development in infants from ethnic minority backgrounds. This study tracked the development of infant communicative gestures from 10 to 12 months (n = 59) in three culturally distinct groups in the United Kingdom and measured their relationship, along with maternal utterance frequency and responsiveness, to vocabulary development at 12 and 18 months. No significant differences were found in infant gesture development and maternal responsiveness across the groups, but relationships were identified between gesture, maternal responsiveness, and vocabulary development.
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18
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Outters V, Schreiner MS, Behne T, Mani N. Maternal input and infants' response to infant-directed speech. INFANCY 2020; 25:478-499. [PMID: 32744790 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Caregivers typically use an exaggerated speech register known as infant-directed speech (IDS) in communication with infants. Infants prefer IDS over adult-directed speech (ADS) and IDS is functionally relevant in infant-directed communication. We examined interactions among maternal IDS quality, infants' preference for IDS over ADS, and the functional relevance of IDS at 6 and 13 months. While 6-month-olds showed a preference for IDS over ADS, 13-month-olds did not. Differences in gaze following behavior triggered by speech register (IDS vs. ADS) were found in both age groups. The degree of infants' preference for IDS (relative to ADS) was linked to the quality of maternal IDS infants were exposed to. No such relationship was found between gaze following behavior and maternal IDS quality and infants' IDS preference. The results speak to a dynamic interaction between infants' preference for different kinds of social signals and the social cues available to them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivien Outters
- Department for Psychology of Language, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.,Leibniz ScienceCampus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany
| | - Melanie S Schreiner
- Department for Psychology of Language, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.,Leibniz ScienceCampus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany.,Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tanya Behne
- Leibniz ScienceCampus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany.,Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Department for Psychology of Language, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.,Leibniz ScienceCampus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany
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19
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Frank MC, Alcock KJ, Arias-Trejo N, Aschersleben G, Baldwin D, Barbu S, Bergelson E, Bergmann C, Black AK, Blything R, Böhland MP, Bolitho P, Borovsky A, Brady SM, Braun B, Brown A, Byers-Heinlein K, Campbell LE, Cashon C, Choi M, Christodoulou J, Cirelli LK, Conte S, Cordes S, Cox C, Cristia A, Cusack R, Davies C, de Klerk M, Delle Luche C, Ruiter LD, Dinakar D, Dixon KC, Durier V, Durrant S, Fennell C, Ferguson B, Ferry A, Fikkert P, Flanagan T, Floccia C, Foley M, Fritzsche T, Frost RLA, Gampe A, Gervain J, Gonzalez-Gomez N, Gupta A, Hahn LE, Kiley Hamlin J, Hannon EE, Havron N, Hay J, Hernik M, Höhle B, Houston DM, Howard LH, Ishikawa M, Itakura S, Jackson I, Jakobsen KV, Jarto M, Johnson SP, Junge C, Karadag D, Kartushina N, Kellier DJ, Keren-Portnoy T, Klassen K, Kline M, Ko ES, Kominsky JF, Kosie JE, Kragness HE, Krieger AAR, Krieger F, Lany J, Lazo RJ, Lee M, Leservoisier C, Levelt C, Lew-Williams C, Lippold M, Liszkowski U, Liu L, Luke SG, Lundwall RA, Macchi Cassia V, Mani N, Marino C, Martin A, Mastroberardino M, Mateu V, Mayor J, Menn K, Michel C, Moriguchi Y, Morris B, Nave KM, Nazzi T, Noble C, Novack MA, Olesen NM, John Orena A, Ota M, Panneton R, Esfahani SP, Paulus M, Pletti C, Polka L, Potter C, Rabagliati H, Ramachandran S, Rennels JL, Reynolds GD, Roth KC, Rothwell C, Rubez D, Ryjova Y, Saffran J, Sato A, Savelkouls S, Schachner A, Schafer G, Schreiner MS, Seidl A, Shukla M, Simpson EA, Singh L, Skarabela B, Soley G, Sundara M, Theakston A, Thompson A, Trainor LJ, Trehub SE, Trøan AS, Tsui ASM, Twomey K, Von Holzen K, Wang Y, Waxman S, Werker JF, Wermelinger S, Woolard A, Yurovsky D, Zahner K, Zettersten M, Soderstrom M. Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference. ADVANCES IN METHODS AND PRACTICES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/2515245919900809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) assessing the overall replicability of a single theoretically important phenomenon and (b) examining methodological, cultural, and developmental moderators. We focus on infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Stimuli of mothers speaking to their infants and to an adult in North American English were created using seminaturalistic laboratory-based audio recordings. Infants’ relative preference for IDS and ADS was assessed across 67 laboratories in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia using the three common methods for measuring infants’ discrimination (head-turn preference, central fixation, and eye tracking). The overall meta-analytic effect size (Cohen’s d) was 0.35, 95% confidence interval = [0.29, 0.42], which was reliably above zero but smaller than the meta-analytic mean computed from previous literature (0.67). The IDS preference was significantly stronger in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect, and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure. Together, these findings replicate the IDS preference but suggest that its magnitude is modulated by development, native-language experience, and testing procedure.
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20
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Soley G, Sebastian-Galles N. Infants' expectations about the recipients of infant-directed and adult-directed speech. Cognition 2020; 198:104214. [PMID: 32058101 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2019] [Revised: 01/27/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Across cultures, adults produce infant-directed speech (IDS) when addressing infants. We explored whether infants expect IDS to be directed at infants and adult-directed speech (ADS) to adults. Infants from Spain and Turkey (12-15 months) watched animated videos with geometric figures, where one adult figure talked to an infant or another adult figure, while they were gazing at each other (Experiments 1 and 2). In some events, the adult figure addressed the infant figure with IDS, or the other adult figure with ADS (congruent); and in others, the same adult figure addressed the other adult figure with IDS or the infant figure with ADS (incongruent). Both groups of infants showed greater looking at incongruent than congruent events. This preference disappeared when the two figures gazed away from each other (Experiment 3). Thus, by 12 months of age, infants have nuanced expectations that different speech registers such as IDS and ADS are appropriate for addressing different recipients in third-party communicative contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaye Soley
- Department of Psychology, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
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21
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Farran LK, Yoo H, Lee CC, Bowman DD, Oller DK. Temporal Coordination in Mother-Infant Vocal Interaction: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2374. [PMID: 31780979 PMCID: PMC6856762 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Temporal coordination of vocal exchanges between mothers and their infants emerges from a developmental process that relies on the ability of communication partners to co-coordinate and predict each other's turns. Consequently, the partners engage in communicative niche construction that forms a foundation for language in human infancy. While robust universals in vocal turn-taking have been found, differences in the timing of maternal and infant vocalizations have also been reported across cultures. In this study, we examine the temporal structure of vocal interactions in 38 mother-infant dyads in the first two years across two cultures-American and Lebanese-by studying observed and randomized distributions of vocalizations, focusing on both gaps and overlaps in naturalistic 10-min vocal interactions. We conducted a series of simulations using Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests to examine whether the observed responsivity patterns differed from randomly generated simulations of responsivity patterns in both Arabic and English for mothers responding to infants and for infants responding to mothers. Results revealed that both mothers and infants engaged in conversational alternation, with mothers acting similarly across cultures. By contrast, significant differences were observed in the timing of infant responses to maternal utterances, with the Lebanese infants' tendency to cluster their responses in the first half-second after the offset of the Lebanese mothers' utterances to a greater extent than their American counterparts. We speculate that the results may be due to potential phonotactic differences between Arabic and English and/or to differing child-rearing practices across Lebanese and American cultures. The findings may have implications for early identification of developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders within and across cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lama K. Farran
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, United States
| | - Hyunjoo Yoo
- Department of Communicative Disorders, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States
| | - Chia-Cheng Lee
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Portland State University, Portland, OR, United States
| | - Dale D. Bowman
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
| | - D. Kimbrough Oller
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
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22
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Mason GM, Goldstein MH, Schwade JA. The role of multisensory development in early language learning. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 183:48-64. [PMID: 30856417 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2018] [Revised: 12/14/2018] [Accepted: 12/15/2018] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
In typical development, communicative skills such as language emerge from infants' ability to combine multisensory information into cohesive percepts. For example, the act of associating the visual or tactile experience of an object with its spoken name is commonly used as a measure of early word learning, and social attention and speech perception frequently involve integrating both visual and auditory attributes. Early perspectives once regarded perceptual integration as one of infants' primary challenges, whereas recent work suggests that caregivers' social responses contain structured patterns that may facilitate infants' perception of multisensory social cues. In the current review, we discuss the regularities within caregiver feedback that may allow infants to more easily discriminate and learn from social signals. We focus on the statistical regularities that emerge in the moment-by-moment behaviors observed in studies of naturalistic caregiver-infant play. We propose that the spatial form and contingencies of caregivers' responses to infants' looks and prelinguistic vocalizations facilitate communicative and cognitive development. We also explore how individual differences in infants' sensory and motor abilities may reciprocally influence caregivers' response patterns, in turn regulating and constraining the types of social learning opportunities that infants experience across early development. We end by discussing implications for neurodevelopmental conditions affecting both multisensory integration and communication (i.e., autism) and suggest avenues for further research and intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gina M Mason
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
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23
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Koplenig A. Language structure is influenced by the number of speakers but seemingly not by the proportion of non-native speakers. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181274. [PMID: 30891265 PMCID: PMC6408393 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2018] [Accepted: 01/29/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Large-scale empirical evidence indicates a fascinating statistical relationship between the estimated number of language users and its linguistic and statistical structure. In this context, the linguistic niche hypothesis argues that this relationship reflects a negative selection against morphological paradigms that are hard to learn for adults, because languages with a large number of speakers are assumed to be typically spoken and learned by greater proportions of adults. In this paper, this conjecture is tested empirically for more than 2000 languages. The results question the idea of the impact of non-native speakers on the grammatical and statistical structure of languages, as it is demonstrated that the relative proportion of non-native speakers does not significantly correlate with either morphological or information-theoretic complexity. While it thus seems that large numbers of adult learners/speakers do not affect the (grammatical or statistical) structure of a language, the results suggest that there is indeed a relationship between the number of speakers and (especially) information-theoretic complexity, i.e. entropy rates. A potential explanation for the observed relationship is discussed.
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24
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Yoo H, Bowman DA, Oller DK. The Origin of Protoconversation: An Examination of Caregiver Responses to Cry and Speech-Like Vocalizations. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1510. [PMID: 30197615 PMCID: PMC6117422 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 07/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Turn-taking is a universal and fundamental feature of human vocal communication. Through protoconversation, caregivers play a key role for infants in helping them learn the turn-taking system. Infants produce both speech-like vocalizations (i.e., protophones) and cries from birth. Prior research has shown that caregivers take turns with infant protophones. However, no prior research has investigated the timing of caregiver responses to cries. The present work is the first to systematically investigate different temporal patterns of caregiver responses to protophones and to cries. Results showed that, even in infants' first 3 months of life, caregivers were more likely to take turns with protophones and to overlap with cries. The study provides evidence that caregivers are intuitively aware that protophones and cries are functionally different: protophones are treated as precursors to speech, whereas cries are treated as expressions of distress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyunjoo Yoo
- Department of Communicative Disorders, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States
| | - Dale A Bowman
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.,Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
| | - D Kimbrough Oller
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.,School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.,Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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25
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Lee CC, Jhang Y, Relyea G, Chen LM, Oller DK. Babbling development as seen in canonical babbling ratios: A naturalistic evaluation of all-day recordings. Infant Behav Dev 2018; 50:140-153. [PMID: 29289753 PMCID: PMC5869132 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2017] [Revised: 09/29/2017] [Accepted: 12/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Canonical babbling (CB) is critical in forming foundations for speech. Research has shown that the emergence of CB precedes first words, predicts language outcomes, and is delayed in infants with several communicative disorders. We seek a naturalistic portrayal of CB development, using all-day home recordings to evaluate the influences of age, language, and social circumstances on infant CB production. Thus we address the nature of very early language foundations and how they can be modulated. This is the first study to evaluate possible interactions of language and social circumstance in the development of babbling. We examined the effects of age (6 and 11 months), language/culture (English and Chinese), and social circumstances (during infant-directed speech [IDS], during infant overhearing of adult-directed speech [ADS], or when infants were alone) on canonical babbling ratios (CBR = canonical syllables/total syllables). The results showed a three-way interaction of infant age by infant language/culture by social circumstance. The complexity of the results forces us to recognize that a variety of factors can interact in the development of foundations for language, and that both the infant vocal response to the language/culture environment and the language/culture environment of the infant may change across age.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - D Kimbrough Oller
- University of Memphis, USA; The Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria
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26
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Frank MC, Bergelson E, Bergmann C, Cristia A, Floccia C, Gervain J, Hamlin JK, Hannon EE, Kline M, Levelt C, Lew-Williams C, Nazzi T, Panneton R, Rabagliati H, Soderstrom M, Sullivan J, Waxman S, Yurovsky D. A Collaborative Approach to Infant Research: Promoting Reproducibility, Best Practices, and Theory-Building. INFANCY 2017; 22:421-435. [PMID: 31772509 PMCID: PMC6879177 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 139] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2016] [Accepted: 02/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The ideal of scientific progress is that we accumulate measurements and integrate these into theory, but recent discussion of replicability issues has cast doubt on whether psychological research conforms to this model. Developmental research-especially with infant participants-also has discipline-specific replicability challenges, including small samples and limited measurement methods. Inspired by collaborative replication efforts in cognitive and social psychology, we describe a proposal for assessing and promoting replicability in infancy research: large-scale, multi-laboratory replication efforts aiming for a more precise understanding of key developmental phenomena. The ManyBabies project, our instantiation of this proposal, will not only help us estimate how robust and replicable these phenomena are, but also gain new theoretical insights into how they vary across ages, linguistic communities, and measurement methods. This project has the potential for a variety of positive outcomes, including less-biased estimates of theoretically important effects, estimates of variability that can be used for later study planning, and a series of best-practices blueprints for future infancy research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Christina Bergmann
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Ecole Normale Superieure, PSL Research University
| | - Alejandrina Cristia
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Ecole Normale Superieure, PSL Research University
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27
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Welch MG. Calming cycle theory: the role of visceral/autonomic learning in early mother and infant/child behaviour and development. Acta Paediatr 2016; 105:1266-1274. [PMID: 27536908 DOI: 10.1111/apa.13547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2016] [Revised: 06/29/2016] [Accepted: 08/15/2016] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Results from a randomised controlled trial of Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) showed significantly improved maternal behaviours and infant neurodevelopment and behaviour through 18 months, including a significantly reduced risk for autism. Preliminary results from a pilot study of FNI in preschool children found significant reduction in adverse behaviour. CONCLUSION Calming cycle theory proposes that early emotional behaviour is shaped by subcortical visceral/autonomic co-conditioning between mother and infant. Two new constructs, emotional connection and visceral/autonomic co-regulation, are defined within a functional Pavlovian conditioning framework and are theorised to be part of an evolutionarily conserved mammalian phenomenon first identified by Pavlov.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martha G. Welch
- Department of Pediatrics; Columbia University Medical Center; New York NY USA
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology; Columbia University Medical Center; New York NY USA
- Department of Psychiatry; Columbia University Medical Center; New York NY USA
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