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Adult judgments of age and linguistic differences in infant vocalization*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Rachel L. Olney  and
Ellin K. Scholnick
Rachel L. Olney
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Ellin K. Scholnick
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Abstract

College students judged the relative ages of pairs of vocalizations sampled either from a Chinese infant at 0; 6, 1; 0 and 1; 6 or from an American infant at the same ages. The judgments were 88% accurate, with the easiest judgments contrasting the 0; 6 and 1; 6 samples (96% accurate). With one exception, age contrasts for the Chinese infant were as easy to judge as those for the American infant. However, a second sample of college students was unable to judge the linguistic community of the vocalizer when age was held constant, whether the data were drawn from infant samples of 0; 6, 1; 0 or 1; 6 or from adults babbling to babies. These data led to speculations on the kinds of cues speakers of different languages use to discriminate infant vocalizations, and whether these cues are age-specific or language-specific. The data presently suggest the former, but the present study has methodological limitations, and generalizations are limited to one specific language contrast, English and Chinese.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 145 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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