Maternal Vocal Interactions with Infants: Reciprocal Visual Influences

Abstract

The present study examined the influence of infant visual cues on maternal vocal and facial expressiveness while speaking or singing and the influence of maternal visual cues on infant attention. Experiment 1 asked whether mothers exhibit more vocal emotion when speaking and singing to infants in or out of view. Adults judged which of each pair of audio excerpts (in view, out of view) sounded more emotional. Face-to-face vocalizations were judged more emotional than vocalizations to infants out of view. Moreover, mothers smiled considerably more while singing than while speaking to infants. Experiment 2 examined the influence of video feedback from infants on maternal speech and singing. Maternal vocalizations in the context of video feedback were judged to be less emotional than those in face-to-face contexts but more emotional than those in out-of-view contexts. Experiment 3 compared six-month-old infants' attention to maternal speech and singing with audio-only versions or with silent video-only versions. Infants exhibited comparable attention to audio-only versions of speech and singing but greater attention to video-only versions of singing. The present investigation is unique in documenting the contribution of infant visual feedback to maternal vocal emotion in contexts that control for infants' presence, visibility, and proximity.

Singing Delays the Onset of Infant Distress

“…Positive emotional expressiveness, such as happy‐sounding speaking or singing voices (Corbeil et al., ; Kitamura & Burnham, ; Singh, Morgan, & Best, ) or happy‐looking faces (Kim & Johnson, ), seems to underlie the attention‐getting consequences of these stimuli. Indeed, happy‐sounding speech and singing induce comparable attention capture (Corbeil et al., ; Costa‐Giomi & Ilari, ; Trehub, Plantinga, & Russo, ), as do happy‐looking ID and AD faces (Kim & Johnson, ). Attention capture is greater, however, to audiovisual renditions of maternal singing than to maternal speech (Nakata & Trehub, ), perhaps because mothers smile more when they sing than when they speak to infants (Trehub et al., ).…”

“…Indeed, happy‐sounding speech and singing induce comparable attention capture (Corbeil et al., ; Costa‐Giomi & Ilari, ; Trehub, Plantinga, & Russo, ), as do happy‐looking ID and AD faces (Kim & Johnson, ). Attention capture is greater, however, to audiovisual renditions of maternal singing than to maternal speech (Nakata & Trehub, ), perhaps because mothers smile more when they sing than when they speak to infants (Trehub et al., ).…”

Musical affect regulation in infancy

“…23 They promote these goals through animated play, including the singing of play songs. 9,18,24 Such singing is also multimodal, doi: 10.1111/nyas.12622 with mothers smiling as they sing, 25 often with distinctive actions. 24 In other words, singing is almost invariably heard and seen, with touch and movement included on many occasions.…”

“…In general, mothers smile more when they sing than when they speak, which may account for infants' greater visual attention to silent videos of infant-directed singing than to comparable videos of speech. 25 Infants also exhibit prolonged attention to audiovisual samples of playful maternal singing relative to playful maternal speech. 29 Acoustic analyses of infant-directed speech reveal more features in common with singing than with conventional or adult-directed speech.…”

“…25 Infants also exhibit prolonged attention to audiovisual samples of playful maternal singing relative to playful maternal speech. 29 Acoustic analyses of infant-directed speech reveal more features in common with singing than with conventional or adult-directed speech.…”