Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T12:30:49.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ecology of prelinguistic vocal learning: parents simplify the structure of their speech in response to babbling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2019

Steven L. ELMLINGER ,
Jennifer A. SCHWADE  and
Michael H. GOLDSTEIN Open the ORCID record for Michael H. GOLDSTEIN [Opens in a new window]
Steven L. ELMLINGER
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
Jennifer A. SCHWADE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
Michael H. GOLDSTEIN*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What is the function of babbling in language learning? We examined the structure of parental speech as a function of contingency on infants’ non-cry prelinguistic vocalizations. We analyzed several acoustic and linguistic measures of caregivers’ speech. Contingent speech was less lexically diverse and shorter in utterance length than non-contingent speech. We also found that the lexical diversity of contingent parental speech only predicted infant vocal maturity. These findings illustrate a new form of influence infants have over their ambient language in everyday learning environments. By vocalizing, infants catalyze the production of simplified, more easily learnable language from caregivers.

Keywords

vocal learninglanguage inputparent–child interactionlanguage statisticsinfant-directed speech
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 5 , September 2019 , pp. 998 - 1011
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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.)

References

Abney, D. H., Warlaumont, A. S., Oller, D. K., Wallot, S., & Kello, C. T. (2016). Multiple coordination patterns in infant and adult vocalizations. Infancy, 22(4), 514–39.Google Scholar
Albert, R. R., Schwade, J. A., & Goldstein, M. H. (2017). The social functions of babbling: acoustic and contextual characteristics that facilitate maternal responsiveness. Developmental Science, 18, e12641.Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2015). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. retrieved from <http://www.praat.org>..>Google Scholar
Brent, M. R., & Siskind, J. M. (2001). The role of exposure to isolated words in early vocabulary development. Cognition, 81(2), B33–B44.Google Scholar
Cameron-Faulkner, T., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2003). A construction based analysis of child directed speech. Cognitive Science, 27(6), 843–73.Google Scholar
Depue, R. A., & Morrone-Strupinsky, J. V. (2005). A neurobehavioral model of affiliative bonding: implications for conceptualizing a human trait of affiliation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 313–50.Google Scholar
Fernald, A., & Morikawa, H. (1993). Common themes and cultural variation in Japanese and American mothers’ speech to infants. Child Development, 64, 637–56.Google Scholar
Fernald, A., & Simon, T. (1984). Expanded intonation contours in mothers’ speech to newborns. Developmental Psychology, 20, 104–13.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., King, A. P., & West, M. J. (2003). Social interaction shapes babbling: testing parallels between birdsong and speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 100(13), 8030–5.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., & Schwade, J. A. (2008). Social feedback to infants’ babbling facilitates rapid phonological learning. Psychological Science, 19(5), 515–23.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., & Schwade, J. (2010) From birds to words: perception of structure in social interactions guides vocal development and language learning. In Blumberg, M. S., Freeman, J. H., & Robinson, S. R. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of developmental behavioral neuroscience (pp. 708–29). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., Schwade, J. A., & Bornstein, M. H. (2009). The value of vocalizing: five-month-old infants associate their own noncry vocalizations with responses from caregivers. Child Development, 80(3), 636–44.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., Schwade, J., Briesch, J., & Syal, S. (2010a). Learning while babbling: prelinguistic object-directed vocalizations indicate a readiness to learn. Infancy, 15(4), 362–91.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. H., Waterfall, H. R., Lotem, A., Halpern, J. Y., Schwade, J. A., Onnis, L., & Edelman, S. (2010b). General cognitive principles for learning structure in time and space. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(6), 249–58.Google Scholar
Gultekin, Y. B., & Hage, S. R. (2018). Limiting parental interaction during vocal development affects acoustic call structure in marmoset monkeys. Science Advances, 4, eaar4012.Google Scholar
Holmgren, K., Lindblom, B., Aurelius, G., Jalling, B., & Zetterström, R. (1986). On the phonetics of infant vocalization. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterström, R. (Eds.), Precursors of early speech (pp. 51–63) (Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series). London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J., Waterfall, H., Vasilyeva, M., Vevea, J., & Hedges, L. V. (2010). Sources of variability in children's language growth. Cognitive Psychology, 61(4), 343–65.Google Scholar
Kareev, Y. (1995) Through a narrow window: working memory capacity and the detection of covariation. Cognition, 56, 263–9.Google Scholar
Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449–60.Google Scholar
Kidd, C., Piantadosi, S. T., & Aslin, R. N. (2014). The Goldilocks effect in infant auditory attention. Child Development, 85, 1795–804.Google Scholar
King, A. P., West, M. J., & Goldstein, M. H. (2005). Non-vocal shaping of avian song development: parallels to human speech development. Ethology, 111(1), 101–17.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F.-M., & Lui, H.-M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 100, 9096–101.Google Scholar
Leffel, K., & Suskind, D. (2013). Parent-directed approaches to enrich the early language environments of children living in poverty. Seminars in Speech and Language, 34, 267–78.Google Scholar
Lew-Williams, C., Pelucchi, B., & Saffran, J. R. (2011). Isolated words enhance statistical language learning in infancy. Developmental Science, 14, 1323–9.Google Scholar
Mattys, S. L., Jusczyk, P. W., Luce, P. A., & Morgan, J. L. (1999). Phonotactic and prosodic effects on word segmentation in infants. Cognitive Psychology, 38(4), 465–94.Google Scholar
Moulin-Frier, C., Nguyen, S. M., & Oudeyer, P.-Y. (2014). Self-organization of early vocal development in infants and machines: the role of intrinsic motivation. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1–20. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01006Google Scholar
Newman, R. S., Rowe, M. L., & Ratner, N. B. (2016). Input and uptake at 7 months predicts toddler vocabulary: the role of child-directed speech and infant processing skills in language development. Journal of Child Language, 43, 1158–73.Google Scholar
Newport, E. L., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. R. (1977). Mother, I'd rather do it myself: some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (Eds.), Talking to Children: language input and acquisition (pp. 109–49). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K. (2000). The emergence of the speech capacity. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Eilers, R. E., & Basinger, D. (2001). Intuitive identification of infant vocal sounds by parents. Developmental Science, 4, 49–60.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., & Lynch, M. P. (1992). Infant vocalizations and innovations in infraphonology: toward a broader theory of development and disorders. In Ferguson, C. A., Menn, L., & Stoel-Gammon, C. (Eds.), Phonological development: models, research, implications (pp. 509–536). Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Parker, M. D., & Brorson, K. (2005). A comparative study between mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLUm) and mean length of utterance in words (MLUw). First Language, 25(3), 365–76.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2018). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Online <https://www.R-project.org/>..>Google Scholar
Ramírez-Esparza, N., García-Sierra, A., & Kuhl, P. K. (2017). The impact of early social interactions on later language development in Spanish–English bilingual infants. Child Development, 88(4), 1216–34.Google Scholar
Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Rowe, M. L., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2018). Beyond the 30-million-word gap: children's conversational exposure is associated with language-related brain function. Psychological Science, 29(5), 700–10. Online <https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/66701?show=full>..>Google Scholar
Roy, B. C., Frank, M. C., & Roy, D. K. (2009). Exploring word learning in a high-density longitudinal corpus. Proceedings of Cognitive Science Society, 1–7.Google Scholar
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274, 1926–8.Google Scholar
Smith, L. B., Suanda, S. H., & Yu, C. (2014). The unrealized promise of infant statistical word–referent learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(5), 251–8.Google Scholar
Smith, N. A., & Trainor, L. J. (2008). Infant-directed speech is modulated by infant feedback. Infancy, 13, 410–20.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1977). Mothers’ speech research: from input to interaction In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (Eds.), Talking to children: language input and acquisition (pp. 31–49). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1995). Issues in the study of input: finetuning, universality, individual and developmental differences, and necessary causes. In Fletcher, P. & MacWhinney, B. (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp. 180–93). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stern, D. N., Spieker, S., Barnett, R. K., & MacKain, K. (1983). The prosody of maternal speech: infant age and context related changes. Journal of Child Language, 10, 1–15.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1989). Prespeech and early speech development of two late talkers. First Language, 9, 207–24.Google Scholar
Syal, S., & Finlay, B. L. (2010). Thinking outside the cortex: social motivation in the evolution and development of language. Developmental Science, 14(2), 417–30.Google Scholar
Takahashi, D. Y., Fenley, A. R., Teramoto, Y., Narayanan, D. Z., Borjon, J. I., Holmes, P., & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2015). The developmental dynamics of marmoset monkey vocal production. Science, 349(6249), 734–8.Google Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., & Baumwell, L. (2001). Maternal responsiveness and children's achievement of language milestones, Child Development, 72, 748–67.Google Scholar
Theofanopoulou, C., Boeckx, C., & Jarvis, E. D. (2017), A hypothesis on a role of oxytocin in the social mechanisms of speech and vocal learning. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1861). doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.0988.Google Scholar
Thiessen, E. D., Hill, E. A., & Saffran, J. R. (2005). Infant-directed speech facilitates word segmentation. Infancy, 7(1), 53–71.Google Scholar
Venker, C. E., Bolt, D. M., Meyer, A., Sindberg, H., Weismer, S. E., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2015). Parent telegraphic speech use and spoken language in preschoolers with ASD. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58(6), 1733–46.Google Scholar
Vukatana, E., Graham, S. A., Curtin, S., & Zepeda, M. S. (2015). One is not enough: multiple exemplars facilitate infants’ generalizations of novel properties. Infancy, 20(5), 548–75.Google Scholar
Warlaumont, A. S., Richards, J. A., Gilkerson, J., & Oller, D. K. (2014). A social feedback loop for speech development and its reduction in autism. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1314–24.Google Scholar
Weisberg, D. S., Zosh, J. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2013). Talking it up: play, language, and the role of adult support. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 39–54.Google Scholar