Yoo Hyunjoo, Bowman Dale A, Oller D Kimbrough
Department of Communicative Disorders, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States.
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Aug 24;9:1510. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01510. eCollection 2018.
Turn-taking is a universal and fundamental feature of human vocal communication. Through protoconversation, caregivers play a key role for infants in helping them learn the turn-taking system. Infants produce both speech-like vocalizations (i.e., protophones) and cries from birth. Prior research has shown that caregivers take turns with infant protophones. However, no prior research has investigated the timing of caregiver responses to cries. The present work is the first to systematically investigate different temporal patterns of caregiver responses to protophones to cries. Results showed that, even in infants' first 3 months of life, caregivers were more likely to take turns with protophones and to overlap with cries. The study provides evidence that caregivers are intuitively aware that protophones and cries are functionally different: protophones are treated as precursors to speech, whereas cries are treated as expressions of distress.
轮流发言是人类语音交流的一个普遍且基本的特征。通过原对话，照顾者在帮助婴儿学习轮流发言系统方面对婴儿起着关键作用。婴儿从出生起就会发出类似语音的发声（即原音）和哭声。先前的研究表明，照顾者会与婴儿的原音轮流发言。然而，之前没有研究调查过照顾者对哭声的反应时机。目前的工作是首次系统地研究照顾者对原音和哭声的不同时间模式的反应。结果表明，即使在婴儿出生后的前3个月，照顾者更有可能与原音轮流发言并与哭声重叠。该研究提供了证据，表明照顾者直观地意识到原音和哭声在功能上是不同的：原音被视为言语的前身，而哭声则被视为痛苦的表达。
