Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Feb;178:295-316. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.09.011. Epub 2018 Nov 16.
Early emerging biases for conspecific vocalizations are a hallmark of early development. Typically developing neonates listen to speech more than many other sounds, including non-biological non-speech sounds, but listen equally to speech and monkey calls. By 3 months of age, however, infants prefer speech over both non-biological non-speech sounds and monkey calls. We examined whether different listening preferences continue to develop along different developmental trajectories and whether listening preferences are related to developmental outcomes. Given the static preference for speech over non-biological non-speech sounds and the dynamic preference for speech over monkey calls between birth and 3 months, we examined whether 9-month-olds prefer speech over non-biological non-speech sounds (Experiment 1) and prefer speech over monkey calls (Experiment 2). We compared preferences for sounds in infants at low risk (SIBS-TD) and infants at high risk (SIBS-A) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a heterogeneous population who differ from typically developing infants in their preferences for speech, and examined whether listening preferences predict vocabulary and autism-like behaviors at 12 months for both groups. At 9 months, SIBS-TD listened longer to speech than to non-speech sounds and listened longer to monkey calls than to speech, whereas SIBS-A listened longer to speech than to non-speech sounds but listened equally to speech and monkey calls. SIBS-TD's preferences did not predict immediate developmental outcomes. In contrast, SIBS-A who preferred speech over non-speech or monkey calls had larger vocabularies and fewer markers of autism-like behaviors at 12 months, which could have positive developmental implications.
早期出现的同类叫声偏好是早期发展的标志。正常发育的新生儿比其他许多声音，包括非生物非言语声音，更喜欢听言语，但他们对言语和猴子叫声的倾听是平等的。然而，到 3 个月大时，婴儿更喜欢言语而不是非生物非言语声音和猴子叫声。我们研究了不同的听力偏好是否会沿着不同的发展轨迹继续发展，以及听力偏好是否与发展结果有关。鉴于出生到 3 个月期间对非生物非言语声音的言语偏好以及对猴子叫声的言语偏好的动态变化，我们研究了 9 个月大的婴儿是否更喜欢言语而不是非生物非言语声音（实验 1）和更喜欢言语而不是猴子叫声（实验 2）。我们比较了低风险（SIBS-TD）和高风险（SIBS-A）自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）婴儿的声音偏好，ASD 是一个异质群体，他们在言语偏好方面与正常发育的婴儿不同，并研究了这两个群体的听力偏好是否能预测 12 个月时的词汇量和自闭症样行为。在 9 个月大时，SIBS-TD 听言语的时间长于听非言语声音，听猴子叫声的时间长于听言语，而 SIBS-A 听言语的时间长于听非言语声音，但听言语和猴子叫声的时间相等。SIBS-TD 的偏好并没有预测即时的发展结果。相比之下，更喜欢言语而不是非言语或猴子叫声的 SIBS-A 在 12 个月时有更大的词汇量和更少的自闭症样行为的标志物，这可能有积极的发展意义。
