The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 25 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Acoustic determinants of infant preference for motherese speech
Open accessAbstract
Three experiments investigated possible acoustic determinants of the infant listening preference for motherese speech found by Fernald 1985. To test the hypothesis that the intonation of motherese speech was sufficient to elicit this preference, it was necessary to eliminate lexical content and to isolate the three major acoustic correlates of intonation: (1) fundamental frequency (Fo), or pitch; (2) amplitude, correlated with loudness; and (3) duration, related to speech rhythm. Three sets of auditory reinforcers were computer-synthesized, derived from the Fo (Experiment 1), amplitude (Experiment 2), and duration (Experiment 3) characteristics of the infant- and adult-directed natural speech samples used by Fernald 1985. Thus, each of these experiments focused on particular prosodic variables in the absence of segmental variation. Twenty 4-month-old infants were tested in an operant auditory preference procedure in each experiment. Infants showed a significant preference for the Fo-patterns of motherese speech, but not for the amplitude or duration patterns of motherese.
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“The universal speaking style used by caretakers around the world when they address infants, often called “motherese” or “parentese” (102), has been shown to be preferred over adult-directed speech by infants given a choice (103, 104).”
From A new view of language acquisition (2000) · cites this paper as [104]
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Cites
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Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 1
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Metadata
- Authors
- Fernald, A., & Kuhl, P.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fernald, Anne
- Venue
- Infant Behavior and Development
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1987-07
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 279-293
- ISSN
- 0163-6383 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2039948074
- Cited by
- 818
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 11.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Infant Behavior and Development (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (79-16559, 81-03581)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- intonation, fundamental frequency, pitch, amplitude, loudness, speech duration, prosody, synthetic speech, infant-directed speech, auditory preference, 4-month-old infants
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