Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, York, UK.
AudioLab, Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, York, UK.
Infancy. 2021 Nov;26(6):1057-1075. doi: 10.1111/infa.12433. Epub 2021 Sep 27.
It has been shown that infants can increase or modify a motorically available behavior such as sucking, kicking, arm waving, etc., in response to a positive visual reinforcement (e.g., DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Millar, 1990; Rochat & Striano, 1999; Rovee-Collier, 1997; Watson & Ramey, 1972). We tested infants to determine if they would also change their vocal behavior in response to contingent feedback, which lacks the social, emotional, and auditory modeling typical of parent-child interaction. Here, we show that in a single five-minute session infants increase the rate of their vocalizations in order to control the appearance of colorful shapes on an iPad screen. This is the first experimental study to demonstrate that infants can rapidly learn to increase their vocalizations, when given positive reinforcement with no social element. This work sets the foundations for future studies into the causal relationship between the number of early vocalizations and the onset of words. In addition, there are potential clinical applications for reinforcing vocal practice in infant populations who are at risk for poor language skills.
已经证明，婴儿可以通过积极的视觉强化（例如，DeCasper 和 Fifer，1980；Millar，1990；Rochat 和 Striano，1999；Rovee-Collier，1997；Watson 和 Ramey，1972）来增加或修改他们可进行的运动行为，例如吮吸、踢腿、挥手等。我们对婴儿进行了测试，以确定他们是否也会根据 contingent feedback 改变他们的发声行为，因为 contingent feedback 缺乏典型的亲子互动中具有的社会、情感和听觉模式。在这里，我们展示了在一个五分钟的单一会议中，婴儿为了控制 iPad 屏幕上彩色形状的出现，会增加他们发声的频率。这是第一个实验研究，证明了婴儿可以在没有社会元素的积极强化的情况下，迅速学会增加他们的发声。这项工作为未来研究早期发声次数与单词出现之间的因果关系奠定了基础。此外，对于那些有语言技能较差风险的婴儿群体，强化发声练习具有潜在的临床应用价值。
