Infant Behavioral State and Speech Sound Discrimination

Abstract

In order to investigate the interaction between infant state and speech sound discrimination, records of state were obtained from infants participating in 3 speech sound discrimination experiments which employed the high amplitude sucking procedure. A total of 94 individual records were rated for state by 2 independent scorers. When treated as an independent variable, state interacted with responsivity to sound change as measured by sucking rate increases. Infants in the more alert states demonstrated significantly higher rates of sucking following sound change. Treating state as a dependent variable revealed that state was not significantly affected by a change in stimulus conditions.

Effects of redundant and nonredundant bimodal sensory stimulation on heart rate in bobwhite quail embryos

“…Excessive or reduced arousal levels are generally associated with poor performance whereas moderate levels of arousal are associated with peak performance (see also Ashton, 1971;Williams & Golenski, 1979). A large body of evidence indicates that the amount or type of available sensory stimulation can directly affect young organisms' arousal level, thereby serving to increase or decrease an infant's attention to the specific features of sensory stimulation present in the perinatal environment (for examples, see Gardner & Karmel, 1995;Richards, 2000;Ruff & Rothbart, 1996).…”