Emotional Speech Processing in 3- to 12-Month-Old Infants: Influences of Emotion Categories and Acoustic Parameters

Autor/inn/en	Kao, Chieh; Sera, Maria D.; Zhang, Yang
Titel	Emotional Speech Processing in 3- to 12-Month-Old Infants: Influences of Emotion Categories and Acoustic Parameters
Quelle	In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65 (2022) 2, S.487-500 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Kao, Chieh) ORCID (Zhang, Yang)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1092-4388
Schlagwörter	Infants; Emotional Response; Speech Communication; Acoustics; Listening; Preferences; Suprasegmentals; Oral Language; Affective Behavior + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Emotionales Verhalten; Akustik; Hörvorgang; Zuhören; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Affective disturbance; Active behaviour; Affektive Störung
Abstract	Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate infants' listening preference for emotional prosodies in spoken words and identify their acoustic correlates. Method: Forty-six 3- to-12-month-old infants (M[subscript age] = 7.6 months) completed a central fixation (or look-to-listen) paradigm in which four emotional prosodies (happy, sad, angry, and neutral) were presented. Infants' looking time to the string of words was recorded as a proxy of their listening attention. Five acoustic variables--mean fundamental frequency (F0), word duration, intensity variation, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), and spectral centroid--were also analyzed to account for infants' attentiveness to each emotion. Results: Infants generally preferred affective over neutral prosody, with more listening attention to the happy and sad voices. Happy sounds with breathy voice quality (low HNR) and less brightness (low spectral centroid) maintained infants' attention more. Sad speech with shorter word duration (i.e., faster speech rate), less breathiness, and more brightness gained infants' attention more than happy speech did. Infants listened less to angry than to happy and sad prosodies, and none of the acoustic variables were associated with infants' listening interests in angry voices. Neutral words with a lower F0 attracted infants' attention more than those with a higher F0. Neither age nor sex effects were observed. Conclusions: This study provides evidence for infants' sensitivity to the prosodic patterns for the basic emotion categories in spoken words and how the acoustic properties of emotional speech may guide their attention. The results point to the need to study the interplay between early socioaffective and language development. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01