Understanding why infant-directed speech supports learning: A dynamic attention perspective

Nencheva, Mira L.; Lew‐Williams, Casey

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2022.101047

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 212 publications

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“…Jakobson [ 8 ] emphasized that, beyond poetry, many commercial ads and political slogans also feature parallelistic patterns. The same has been shown for infant-directed speech (especially on the level of prosody; see [ 16 , 17 ]), natural conversation [ 18 ] and ritualistic speech, including prayers [ 11 , 19 ]. Parallelistic patterning is thus found across virtually all registers of language.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction

Menninghaus,

Wagner,

Schindler

et al. 2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Poetic diction routinely involves two complementary classes of features: (i) parallelisms, i.e. repetitive patterns (rhyme, metre, alliteration, etc.) that enhance the predictability of upcoming words, and (ii) poetic deviations that challenge standard expectations/predictions regarding regular word form and order. The present study investigated how these two prediction-modulating fundamentals of poetic diction affect the cognitive processing and aesthetic evaluation of poems, humoristic couplets and proverbs. We developed quantitative measures of these two groups of text features. Across the three text genres, higher deviation scores reduced both comprehensibility and aesthetic liking whereas higher parallelism scores enhanced these. The positive effects of parallelism are significantly stronger than the concurrent negative effects of the features of deviation. These results are in accord with the hypothesis that art reception involves an interplay of prediction errors and prediction error minimization, with the latter paving the way for processing fluency and aesthetic liking.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives’.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction

Menninghaus,

Wagner,

Schindler

et al. 2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…From birth, infants prefer listening to the IDS speech register ( Fernald, 1985 ; Cooper and Aslin, 1990 ), and it has been argued that IDS modulates infants’ attention and arousal in a way that supports real-time communication and learning. More recently, it was proposed that IDS supports speech processing by optimizing neural entrainment, where neural oscillations become time-locked to key moments in an attended stimulus, thus enhancing time-locked attention ( Goswami, 2019 ; Nencheva and Lew-Williams, 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heart-to-heart: infant heart rate at 3 months is linked to infant-directed speech, mother–infant interaction, and later language outcomes

Endevelt-Shapira,

Bosseler,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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IntroductionPrevious studies underscore the importance of speech input, particularly infant-directed speech (IDS) during one-on-one (1:1) parent–infant interaction, for child language development. We hypothesize that infants’ attention to speech input, specifically IDS, supports language acquisition. In infants, attention and orienting responses are associated with heart rate deceleration. We examined whether individual differences in infants’ heart rate measured during 1:1 mother–infant interaction is related to speech input and later language development scores in a longitudinal study.MethodsUsing a sample of 31 3-month-olds, we assessed infant heart rate during mother–infant face-to-face interaction in a laboratory setting. Multiple measures of speech input were gathered at 3 months of age during naturally occurring interactions at home using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system. Language outcome measures were assessed in the same children at 30 months of age using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI).ResultsTwo novel findings emerged. First, we found that higher maternal IDS in a 1:1 context at home, as well as more mother–infant conversational turns at home, are associated with a lower heart rate measured during mother–infant social interaction in the laboratory. Second, we found significant associations between infant heart rate during mother–infant interaction in the laboratory at 3 months and prospective language development (CDI scores) at 30 months of age.DiscussionConsidering the current results in conjunction with other converging theoretical and neuroscientific data, we argue that high IDS input in the context of 1:1 social interaction increases infants’ attention to speech and that infants’ attention to speech in early development fosters their prospective language growth.

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“…These adaptations to IDS have a number of benefits for young learners. For example, there is robust evidence that infants prefer to listen to infant-over adult-directed speech (ManyBabies Consortium, 2020;Cooper & Aslin, 1990;Fernald, 1985), which is likely driven by optimized neural entrainment to its moment-to-moment dynamics (Nencheva & Lew-Williams, 2022).…”

Section: Infant-directedness Across Modalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, caregivers' use of IDC increased as infants' scores on the MCDI decreased. This effect was primarily driven by caregivers' use of emotion, 𝑝 < .001, and touch, 𝑝 = .037, and suggests that caregivers use more IDC with infants who know fewer words, perhaps in a way that scaffolds their attention and learning (see Nencheva & Lew-Williams, 2022). We also collected a second MCDI approximately 10 months after the 10-minute play session and found similar relations to caregivers' use of IDC (see Supplementary Materials on our OSF page) 2 .…”

Section: Relations Between Caregivers' Use Of Idc and Infants' Langua...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant-Directed Communication: Examining the many dimensions of everyday caregiver-infant interactions

Kosie

Lew‐Williams

2023

Preprint

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Everyday caregiver-infant interactions are multimodal and dynamic. However, the quality and quantity of infant-directed speech (IDS) has received primary focus in much existing research on infants’ natural interactions with caregivers. While speech is a ubiquitous feature of infant experience, focusing on speech alone undercuts the full richness of infants’ everyday learning environments. Here, to augment this research, we introduce “infant-directed communication” (IDC): the suite of communicative signals from caregivers to infants including speech, action, gesture, emotion, and touch. We recorded 10 minutes of at-home play between 44 caregivers and their 18- to 24-month-old infants from predominantly white, middle-class, English-speaking families in the United States. Interactions were coded for the five dimensions of IDC as well as infants’ gestures and vocalizations. Most caregivers used all five dimensions of IDC throughout the interaction, and over 60% of the speech that infants heard was accompanied by one or more non-verbal communicative cues. However, we saw marked variation across caregivers in their use of IDC, likely reflecting tailored communication to the behaviors and abilities of their own infant. Moreover, caregivers systematically increased their use of IDC in response to infant gestures and vocalizations, and used more IDC with infants who had smaller vocabularies. Understanding how and when caregivers use these five signals in interactions with infants has the potential to redefine how developmental scientists conceive of infants’ early learning environments, and enhance our understanding of relations between caregiver input and early learning.

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Understanding why infant-directed speech supports learning: A dynamic attention perspective

Cited by 17 publications

References 212 publications

Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction

Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction

Heart-to-heart: infant heart rate at 3 months is linked to infant-directed speech, mother–infant interaction, and later language outcomes

Infant-Directed Communication: Examining the many dimensions of everyday caregiver-infant interactions

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