Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T16:00:51.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of contingent and noncontingent maternal stimulation on the vocal behaviour of three- to four-month-old Japanese infants*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Nobuo Masataka
Nobuo Masataka*
Affiliation:
The University of Tokyo
*
Address for correspondence: Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113, Japan.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A total of 48 male infants experienced either conversational turn-taking or random responsiveness of their mothers when aged 0;3 and 0;4. In both periods, the infant's rate of vocalizing was not significantly influenced by the contingency of the mother's response, but contingency altered the temporal parameters of the infant's vocal pattern. Infants tended to produce more bursts or packets of vocalizations when the mother talked to the infant in a random pattern. When the infants were aged 0;3 such bursts occurred most often at intervals of 0·5–1·5 sec whereas when they were aged 0;4 they took place most frequently at significantly longer intervals, of 1·0–2·0. The difference corresponded to the difference between intervals with which the mother responded contingently to vocalizations of the infant at 0;3 and at 0;4. While the intervals (between the onset of the infant's vocalization and the onset of the mother's vocalization) rarely exceeded 0·5 sec when the infant was aged 0;3, they were mostly distributed between 0·5 and 1·0 sec when he was aged 0;4. After vocalizing spontaneously, the infant tended to pause as if to listen for a possible vocal response from the mother. In the absence of a response, he vocalized repeatedly. The intervals between the two consecutive vocalizations were changed flexibly by the infant according to his recent experience of turn-taking with the mother.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 303 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

I am greatly indebted to Kathleen Bloom for reading an earlier draft of this manuscript and making a number of invaluable comments. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer for her constructive criticism.

References

REFERENCES

Bloom, K. (1977). Patterning of infant vocal behaviour. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 23, 367–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, K. (1988). Quality of adult vocalizations affects the quality of infant vocalizations. Journal of Child Language 15, 469–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bloom, K. & Lo, E. (1990). Adult perceptions of vocalizing infants. Infant Behaviour and Development 13, 209–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, K., D'Odorico, L. & Beaumont, S. (in press). Adult preferences for syllabic vocalizations: generalizations to parity and native language. Infant Behavior and Development.Google Scholar
Bloom, K., Russell, A. & Wassenberg, K. (1987). Turn taking affects the quality of infant vocalizations. Journal of Child Language 14, 211–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bullowa, M. (1979). Before speech: the beginning of interpersonal communication. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
D'Odorico, L. (1984). Non-segmental features in prelinguistic communications: an analysis of some types of infant cry and non-cry vocalizations. Journal of Child Language 11, 17–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaye, K. (1982). The mental and social life of babies. Brighton, England: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Kent, R. D. (1981). Articulatory-acoustic perspective on speech development. In Stark, R. E. (ed.), Language behaviour in infancy and early childhood. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Lock, A. (1978). Action, gesture and symbol. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Netsell, R. (1981). The acquisition of speech motor control: a perspective with directions for research. In Stark, R. E. (ed.), Language behaviour in infancy and early childhood. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (1982). Social interchange in infancy. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Watson, J. S. (1966). The development and generalization of ‘contingency awareness’ in early infancy: some hypotheses. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 12, 123–35.Google Scholar