Mommy is only happy! Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in infant-directed speech expresses emotion,not didactic intent

Exaggeration of the vowel space in infant-directed speech (IDS) is well documented for English, but not consistently replicated in other languages or for other speech-sound contrasts. A second attested, but less discussed, pattern of change in IDS is an overall rise of the formant frequencies, which may reflect an affective speaking style. The present study investigates longitudinally how Dutch mothers change their corner vowels, voiceless fricatives, and pitch when speaking to their infant at 11 and 15 months of age. In comparison to adult-directed speech (ADS), Dutch IDS has a smaller vowel space, higher second and third formant frequencies in the vowels, and a higher spectral frequency in the fricatives. The formants of the vowels and spectral frequency of the fricatives are raised more strongly for infants at 11 than at 15 months, while the pitch is more extreme in IDS to 15-month olds. These results show that enhanced positive affect is the main factor influencing Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in IDS, especially to younger infants. This study provides evidence that mothers’ expression of emotion in IDS can influence the realisation of speech sounds, and that the loss or gain of speech clarity may be secondary effects of affect.     

Tonal Coarticulation in Thai after Unilateral Brain Damage

The magnitude and temporal extent of anticipatory and perseverative tonal coarticulation was investigated in Thai-speaking normal and brain-damaged adults. A total of 47 speakers (10 young normal, 10 old normal, 13 nonaphasic right-brain-damaged patients, 14 left-brain-damaged aphasic patients, 9 fluent, 5 nonfluent) produced all 25 possible sequences of two tones from the five lexical tones of Thai embedded in a carrier sentence.F₀contours were analyzed in terms of height and slope at 10% intervals throughout the duration of the two syllables. Acoustic analysis revealed that anticipatory and perseverative tonal coarticulation of tones was markedly reduced in left fluent aphasics, totally absent in left nonfluent aphasics, but reasonably intact in right hemisphere patients. Findings are interpreted to highlight the nature of speech disturbances in nonfluent and fluent aphasia, hemispheric specialization for tone, and tonal coarticulation in Thai.     

The prosodic expression of anger: Differentiating threat and frustration

A theory relating aggression and the pitch of vocalizations [Ohala, 1983, 1984] predicts that the expression of anger in humans should have a low pitch; however, experimentally anger is found to have a high pitch. A possible resolution of this discrepancy is that there are two different prosodic expressions of anger, one with low pitch and one with high pitch. To investigate this possibility, 27 different expressions of the phrase “Don't do that” were tape-recorded. Subjects first rated how angry each utterance sounded and then categorized each utterance as expressing either frustration, threat, disgust, advice, or emotional neutrality. Some utterances were rated as angry and categorized as frustration; other utterances were also rated as angry, but categorized as threat. Frustration correlated with higher fundamental frequency (F₀). Threat did not correlate with lower F₀, but it correlated with lower perceived pitch.     

Imitation of synthesized English and nonEnglish vowels by children and adults

Imitations of 15 synthesized vowels, some like English vowels and some not, were obtained from nine adults and ten 6-year-old children. Estimates of the first three formant frequencies (F ₁ , F ₂ , and F ₃ ) were made from spectrograms of the vowel imitations. The reliability of reproduction was assessed by calculating standard deviations for five imitations each of ten of the synthetic stimuli. Generally, both the intrasubject and intersubject variabilities were greater for the children than for the adults. However, the differences in intrasubject variability between the two groups often were not much greater than the difference in measurement error which would be expected for voices of different fundamental frequencies. Subjects tended to reproduce the nonEnglish vowels less reliably than the English vowels, although the adults were less influenced by phonetic familiarity than were the children. Vowel familiarity appeared to be especially important for reliable reporoduction of the F ₂ frequency. Plotting of the imitation data for English vowels in a F ₁ –F ₂ plane with linear dimensions revealed a fairly systematic clustering for the four age-sex groups of men, women, boys, and girls, but the group clustering was not so systematic for the imitation data for the nonEnglish vowels.This work was supported by Public Health Service Research Grant NS-HD-12281.     

Prosody in Infant-Directed Speech Is Similar Across Western and Traditional Cultures

When speaking to infants, adults typically alter the acoustic properties of their speech in a variety of ways compared with how they speak to other adults; for example, they use higher pitch, increased pitch range, more pitch variability, and slower speech rate. Research shows that these vocal changes happen similarly across industrialized populations, but no studies have carefully examined basic acoustic properties of infant-directed (ID) speech in traditional societies. Moreover, some scholars have suggested that ID speech is culturally specific and does not exist in some small-scale societies. We examined fundamental frequency (F₀) production and speech rate in mothers speaking to both infants and adults in three cultures: Fijians, Kenyans, and North Americans. In all three cultures, speakers used higher F₀ when speaking to infants relative to when speaking to other adults, and they also used significantly greater F₀ variation and fewer syllables per second. Previous research has found that American mothers tend to use higher pitch than do mothers from other cultures, but when maternal education was controlled in the current study, we did not find a significant difference in average pitch across our three populations. This is the first research systematically comparing spontaneous ID and adult-directed speech prosody between Western and traditional societies, and it is consistent with a large body of evidence showing similar acoustic patterns in ID speech across industrialized populations.     

The Effect of Maternal Depressed Mood on Infant Emotional Reaction in a Surprise‐Eliciting Situation

The purpose of this study is to examine the claim that an infant's ability to respond appropriately to an emotional situation varies according to the emotional state of the mother. Surprise expressions in mother and child were examined both in terms of paralinguistic aspects of surprise vocalizations as well as facial expressions. Seventy‐two infants and their mothers (mean age=8 months, range=5–11 months) were video‐ and audiotaped in their homes. Half of the infants, matched for age and gender, had mothers who reported depressed mood. Infants of mothers with depressed mood showed significantly fewer components of facial expressions of surprise compared with infants of nondepressed mothers. Mothers with depressed mood exclaimed surprise with a significantly lower pitch (mean F₀=386.13 Hz ) compared to nondepressed mothers (mean F₀=438.10 Hz ). Furthermore, mothers with depressed mood showed fewer associations between elements of emotional expression than the nondepressed group. Infants' expressions of surprise are influenced by maternal mood, resulting in reduced expression of the emotion in infants of mothers with depressed mood. These results are discussed in terms of coordination of vocal parameters in mother–infant dyadic interaction.     

Vocal fundamental and formant frequencies affect perceptions of speaker cooperativeness

In recent years, the perception of social traits in faces and voices has received much attention. Facial and vocal masculinity are linked to perceptions of trustworthiness; however, while feminine faces are generally considered to be trustworthy, vocal trustworthiness is associated with masculinized vocal features. Vocal traits such as pitch and formants have previously been associated with perceived social traits such as trustworthiness and dominance, but the link between these measurements and perceptions of cooperativeness have yet to be examined. In Experiment 1, cooperativeness ratings of male and female voices were examined against four vocal measurements: fundamental frequency (F₀), pitch variation (F₀?SD), formant dispersion (D_f), and formant position (P_f). Feminine pitch traits (F₀ and F₀?SD) and masculine formant traits (D_f and P_f) were associated with higher cooperativeness ratings. In Experiment 2, manipulated voices with feminized F₀ were found to be more cooperative than voices with masculinized F₀^, among both male and female speakers, confirming our results from Experiment 1. Feminine pitch qualities may indicate an individual who is friendly and non-threatening, while masculine formant qualities may reflect an individual that is socially dominant or prestigious, and the perception of these associated traits may influence the perceived cooperativeness of the speakers.     

Mothers' and fathers' speech to infants in a teaching situation

The purpose of this study was to compare mothers' and fathers' speech to their preverbal infants in a teaching situation. Thirty-two parents of 16 8-month-olds were asked to teach their infants to put a small cube into a cup. Infant Gender (2) x Birth Order (2) x Parent (2) analyses of variance were performed with repeated measures on parent. Results indicated that fathers issued more utterances and used more words per utterance than did mothers. Although there was no difference in the proportion of imperatives used by mothers and fathers, fathers' imperatives were significantly longer than mothers'; this difference was not evident for utterances that contained indirect instructions. Mothers tended to use more exact repetitions. There were differences in parental speech related to infant gender: Parents directed more utterances, particularly utterances that contained negative statements, imperatives, and exhortations, to girls than to boys. Infant Gender x Parent effects for imperatives and exhortations indicated that these differences were especially true for fathers. Overall, it appeared that fathers made greater efforts to control the situation and to direct their infants' behavior, which might have reflected mothers' and fathers' different perceptions of both their infants' ability and their own role as teachers.     

Does Infant-Directed Speech Help Phonetic Learning? A Machine Learning Investigation

A prominent hypothesis holds that by speaking to infants in infant-directed speech (IDS) as opposed to adult-directed speech (ADS), parents help them learn phonetic categories. Specifically, two characteristics of IDS have been claimed to facilitate learning: hyperarticulation, which makes the categories more separable, and variability, which makes the generalization more robust. Here, we test the separability and robustness of vowel category learning on acoustic representations of speech uttered by Japanese adults in ADS, IDS (addressed to 18- to 24-month olds), or read speech (RS). Separability is determined by means of a distance measure computed between the five short vowel categories of Japanese, while robustness is assessed by testing the ability of six different machine learning algorithms trained to classify vowels to generalize on stimuli spoken by a novel speaker in ADS. Using two different speech representations, we find that hyperarticulated speech, in the case of RS, can yield better separability, and that increased between-speaker variability in ADS can yield, for some algorithms, more robust categories. However, these conclusions do not apply to IDS, which turned out to yield neither more separable nor more robust categories compared to ADS inputs. We discuss the usefulness of machine learning algorithms run on real data to test hypotheses about the functional role of IDS.     

Mothers’ Gender-Role Attitudes and Their Responses to Young Children’s Hypothetical Display of Shy and Aggressive Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of child gender and maternal gender-role attitudes in mothers’ reactions to hypothetical vignettes depicting their preschool-aged child displaying aggressive and shy behaviors. Participants were 78 mothers of preschool-aged children (43 girls, 35 boys; M _age?=?47.44?months, SD?=?11.00) living in a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Mothers provided reports of their gender-role attitudes and rated their expectancies and emotional/behavioral reactions following hypothetical vignettes depicting their child displaying physically aggressive and shy-withdrawn behaviors. It was hypothesized that mothers would respond with more negative (and less positive) emotions and expectancies in response to children’s gender-incongruent problem behaviors (i.e., shyness among boys, aggression among girls). It was further hypothesized that these gender effects would be more pronounced among mothers espousing more traditional (i.e., less egalitarian) gender-role attitudes. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that mothers anticipated more negative consequences to aggression among boys than among girls. Several significant interaction effects also emerged between child gender and maternal gender-role attitudes, particularly with regards to children’s shyness. Among mothers of boys, a more egalitarian gender-role attitude was associated with greater anticipated benefits of shyness, and both more positive and more negative emotional responses to shyness. For mothers of girls, however, the opposite pattern emerged. Results provide some support for the notion that mothers may enforce gender-typical social behaviors in their children, particularly if they themselves hold more traditional gender-role attitudes.     

Interests and Leadership among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there is a differential relationship in the socialization of children with respect to gender identification when responses of children were examined with respect to race and sex (N = 596 fifth and sixth grade boys and girls). Strong father preference was found to have no effect on the choice a boy will make when choosing between male and female peers, during preadolescence, while a strong mother preference by a girl is related to the sex of the peers she chooses. Preadolescent girls who identify with their mothers chose girls with whom to interact in a variety of activities more frequently than they chose boys. A greater proportion of girls preferred to engage in activities with their mothers than boys preferred to engage in activities with their fathers. No differences were observed between racial groups in terms of girls' choices involving peers. Black boys, however, preferred to engage in activities with opposite-sex rather than same-sex peers to a greater extent than white boys.     

Attributions About Achievement and Intentions About Further Study in Social Context

This project examined sources and consequences of attributions for achievement for boys and girls at co-ed (N = 663) and single-sex schools (N = 697). Overall attributions emphasised long and short term effort, over other personal (ability, liking) and social reasons (parents, teachers) or feeling good or bad on the day. Attributions were substantially similar for girls and boys, with particular variations in attributions to effort and ability at co-ed and not single-sex schools. Results suggested an illusory glow for boys more than girls in attributions to ability and effort for doing well in Mathematics and English, and traditional gender stereotyping in attributions to poor ability for not doing well in Mathematics. Results showed weak associations between attributions about effort and ability with intentions for Mathematics and English courses in senior high school. Findings suggest further research about personal and social sources of attributions in co-ed schools, and question the practical significance of attributions for achievement motivation.     

Slow Speech Enhances Younger But Not Older Infants' Perception of Vocal Emotion

Infants attend more to infant-directed speech (IDS) than to adult-directed speech (ADS), but infants also prefer speech judged to be high in positive emotion over less emotional speech regardless of whether it is IDS or ADS. Emotion in voices is often conveyed by absolute pitch, pitch contours, and tempo (or duration). The purpose of our study was to explore how perceived emotion in speech is enhanced or attenuated by duration. We tested 18- and 32-week-old infants for attention to IDS that was either high or low in emotion (as judged by adults) and at two different durations (normal vs. slow). The results showed that 18-week-olds attended more to slow IDS (with affect constant), attended more to high affect (with duration constant), and showed equal attention when affect and duration were juxtaposed. In contrast, 32-week-olds showed greater attention to normal IDS regardless of its emotional level. Slower IDS may enhance younger infants' perception of vocal emotion but does not increase attention in older infants perhaps because they no longer rely on this acoustic cue for emotion. We suggest future studies to help tease apart these interpretations.     

Sex differences in parental directives to young children

This study investigated how children learn sex-associated strategies for requesting action. We compared the directives which mothers and fathers address to their 2 1/2- to 5-year-old children. Ten children, 5 boys and 5 girls, engaged separately with each parent in a construction task. Fathers produced more directives than mothers and tended to phrase them as imperatives (e.g., Put the screw in) or as highly indirect “hints” (e.g., The wheel's going to fall off) more often than mothers, who relied more on relatively transparent indirect forms (e.g., Can you put the screw in?). There were no differences in the form of the directives addressed to girls and boys, nor were there any cross-sex effects. Parental modeling, rather than differential socialization of girls and boys, appears to be the mechanism by which children learn to request action in sex-associated ways.     

Sex differences in relational and overt aggression in the late elementary school years

Sex differences in relational and overt aggression among 3rd (n=176), 4th (n=179), and 5th graders (n=145) from three public schools (n=500; 278 girls) were examined. Nominations of relational aggression increased over time among 4th and 5th grade girls, but not among boys or 3rd grade girls. Among 3rd graders, boys received more nominations for relational aggression than girls. By the end of the 5th grade, girls received more relational aggression nominations than boys. There was also a significant rise in nominations of overt aggression among 5th grade girls, but not among 5th grade boys or younger boys and girls. As expected, boys were more likely than girls to be nominated for overt aggression at all grade levels. The findings are helpful for explaining inconsistencies of earlier research pertaining to sex differences in relational aggression and for advancing our understanding of the causes of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 36:282–291, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A cascade of rejection and appearance preoccupation: Adolescents’ body dysmorphic symptoms and appearance rejection sensitivity over 4 years

Adolescence is a high-risk period for body image disturbance and appearance concerns. In a cascade model, we examined interrelations of body dysmorphic symptoms (BDS) with appearance rejection sensitivity (ARS) and tested gender moderation. Participants were 397 Australian adolescents (T1 Mage = 11.7, SD = 0.91; 56% girls) who completed six surveys over 4 years. In a random-intercept cross-lag model, two (of five possible) paths showed ARS predicted higher subsequent BDS, and three (of five possible) paths showed BDS predicted higher subsequent ARS. Girls reported more BDS and ARS than boys, and random intercepts of BDS and ARS were correlated with the correlation stronger in girls than boys. Cross-lag BDD-ARS associations over the six waves were not significantly moderated by gender. Overall, girls are at higher risk of appearance concerns than boys, but BDD-ARS cascade effects do not differ between girls and boys.     

Telling stories: Gender differences in peers’ emotion talk and communication style

Eighty girls and 64 boys (M= 6 years; 8 months, SD= .65) narrated a wordless picture book in mixed‐ or same‐gender dyads. In mixed‐gender as well as same‐gender dyads, girls used more emotion explanations than did boys. Combined across dyad type, girls used more emotion labels than did boys. Girls used a higher proportion of collaborative speech acts than did boys in same‐gender dyads, but girls and boys used the same amount in mixed‐gender dyads. Whereas girls used a higher proportion of informing acts in mixed‐gender dyads than did boys, boys used more than did girls in same‐gender dyads. The findings support contextual models of gender and suggest that speaker as well as partner gender influence emotion expression and conversational style.     

Gender Differences in Parent–Child Emotion Narratives

Early parent–child conversations about past emotional experiences provide a rich environment for the socialization of emotions. This study explored the role of parent and child gender in this process. Participants were 21 White, middle-class, 40- to 45-month-old children and their mothers and fathers. At separate home visits, each parent discussed with their child four specific past events during which the child experienced happiness, anger, sadness, and fear, respectively. Mothers conversed more overall, talked more about emotional aspects of the experience, and used more emotion words than did fathers. Similarly, girls talked more about emotional aspects of their experiences than did boys. Further, girls used more emotion words when discussing scary events than did boys. Most intriguingly, both mothers and fathers used more emotional utterances when discussing sad events with daughters than with sons. Parent–daughter dyads also placed emotional experiences in a more interpersonal context than did parent–son dyads. Implications for the development of gender, emotional understanding, and clinical repercussions are discussed.     

When Empathy Matters: The Role of Sex and Empathy in Close Friendships

Based on prior theory and research (Ciarrochi & Heaven, 2009; Eagly & Wood, 1999), we hypothesized that the link between empathy and friendship would be moderated by sex: Girls will nominate empathic boys as friends, whereas boys will not tend to nominate empathic girls. We collected measures of empathy, friendship social support, and close friendship nominations in grade 10 across 1,970 students in 16 schools (M_age = 15.70, SD = .44; males = 993, females = 977). Multilevel models revealed that boys high in cognitive empathy attracted an average of 1.8 more girl friendship nominations than did their low empathy counterparts, whereas empathic girls did not attract a greater number of opposite‐sex friends. In addition, the more friendship nominations a boy received from either boys or girls, the more they felt supported by their friends; the number of friendship nominations received by girls, in contrast, had no effect on their felt support by friends. Regardless of the quantity of friendship nominations, empathy was linked to more supportive friendships for both males and females. These results inform a contextual understanding of the role of empathy in selecting and maintaining friendships.     

Time use of Hellene 3rd and 4th graders during a school day

Using data from the time diaries of 164 Hellene 3rd and 4th graders interviewed in their homes in March 2007, individual differences in time-use patterns were investigated. The participants rested for 9 hours 10 minutes, and spent 57.0%, 21.7%, and 5.0% of their waking time on school-related activities (attending school, learning languages, doing homework), leisure activities (such as playing and watching TV), and other activities, respectively. Pupils from rural areas rested longer; more boys engaged in play and sports; more girls and more pupils from higher SES families engaged in dance. Overall, the time spent on school-related activities is higher than the times spent on other activities. Regarding leisure, girls spent the most time watching TV, while boys spent the most time watching TV and playing. In line with previous literature, the time schedule of Hellene pupils is directed towards knowledge acquisition, rather than cognitive or socio-emotional development.