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The effect of speaker identity, voice inflection, vocabulary, and message redundancy on infants' selection of vocal reinforcement

1968; Elsevier BV; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0022-0965(68)90125-2

1096-0457

Bernard Z. Friedlander,

Early Childhood Education and Development

Three normal infant boys aged 11–15 months played in their standard playpens at home in more than 300 test sessions with an automated behavior analysis toy that allowed them to select between pairs of voice and other audio reinforcements offered via endless loops of pre-recorded stereo audio tape. Among the salient findings were: significant preference for mother's voice feedback over simple music feedback; discriminative selection between stranger's voice and mother's voice; shifting preference related to variations of inflection, vocabulary, and speaker's identity; shifting preferences related to high and low values of feedback redundancy. Findings are discussed in a context of cognitive development and aspects of the growth of expressive speech.