Maternal Control of Co‐vocalization and Inter‐speaker Silences in Mother‐ineant Vocal Engagements*

Elias, Gordon; Hayes, Alan; Broerse, Jack

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1986.tb01842.x

Cited by 24 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The two most common errors evident early in the year were frequent interruptions of parents (figure 1a,b) and producing call types inappropriate to the context ( figure 1c,d). Interruptions by marmosets in this context may be analogous to co-vocalizing described in human infantparent conversations [34], while the refinement to only producing Phees may be similar to changes in human infants from vocalic to syllabic sounds during turn-taking development [35]. Adult marmosets rarely interrupt each other during these vocal exchanges [15,17].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Vocal turn-taking in a non-human primate is learned during ontogeny

2015

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Conversational turn-taking is an integral part of language development, as it reflects a confluence of social factors that mitigate communication. Humans coordinate the timing of speech based on the behaviour of another speaker, a behaviour that is learned during infancy. While adults in several primate species engage in vocal turn-taking, the degree to which similar learning processes underlie its development in these non-human species or are unique to language is not clear. We recorded the natural vocal interactions of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) occurring with both their sibling twins and parents over the first year of life and observed at least two parallels with language development. First, marmoset turn-taking is a learned vocal behaviour. Second, marmoset parents potentially played a direct role in guiding the development of turn-taking by providing feedback to their offspring when errors occurred during vocal interactions similarly to what has been observed in humans. Though species-differences are also evident, these findings suggest that similar learning mechanisms may be implemented in the ontogeny of vocal turn-taking across our Order, a finding that has important implications for our understanding of language evolution.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Vocal turn-taking in a non-human primate is learned during ontogeny

2015

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“…Taken together, researchers have reported consistent results in terms of presence (or early emergence) of turn-taking in protoconversation, even though many infant vocalizations are overlapped with maternal vocalizations (Bateson, 1975; Elias et al, 1986; Beebe et al, 1988; Gratier, 2003; Hsu and Fogel, 2003). However, the evidence is not conclusive about whether turn-taking increases and overlap decreases as a function of age.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

The Origin of Protoconversation: An Examination of Caregiver Responses to Cry and Speech-Like Vocalizations

2018

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Turn-taking is a universal and fundamental feature of human vocal communication. Through protoconversation, caregivers play a key role for infants in helping them learn the turn-taking system. Infants produce both speech-like vocalizations (i.e., protophones) and cries from birth. Prior research has shown that caregivers take turns with infant protophones. However, no prior research has investigated the timing of caregiver responses to cries. The present work is the first to systematically investigate different temporal patterns of caregiver responses to protophones and to cries. Results showed that, even in infants' first 3 months of life, caregivers were more likely to take turns with protophones and to overlap with cries. The study provides evidence that caregivers are intuitively aware that protophones and cries are functionally different: protophones are treated as precursors to speech, whereas cries are treated as expressions of distress.

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“…Thinking about parent-child relationships naturally highlights parents as agents of children’s socialization, and there is ample evidence, especially in the early years, that, between parents and children, parents exert more sway and young children command less agency (Elias, Hayes, & Broerse, 1986; Kochanska & Aksan, 2004; Maccoby, 1992; Vygotsky, 1978). This asymmetrical finding therefore accords with other developmental observations concerned with transaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother-Infant Contingent Vocalizations in 11 Countries

et al. 2015

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Mother-infant vocal interactions serve multiple functions in child development, but the community-common or community-specific nature of key features of their vocal interactions remains unclear. Here we examined rates, interrelations, and contingencies of vocal interactions in 684 mothers and their 5-month-old infants in diverse communities in 11 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, and United States). Rates of mothers’ and infants’ vocalizations varied widely across communities and were uncorrelated. However, collapsing across communities mothers vocalized to infants contingent on the offset of their infants’ nondistress vocalizing, infants vocalized contingent on the offset of their mothers’ vocalizing, and maternal and infant contingencies were significantly correlated, pointing to the beginnings of dyadic conversational turn taking. Despite broad differences in the overall talkativeness of mothers and infants, maternal and infant contingent vocal responsiveness is common across communities, supporting essential functions of turn-taking in early child socialization.

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Maternal Control of Co‐vocalization and Inter‐speaker Silences in Mother‐ineant Vocal Engagements*

Cited by 24 publications

References 15 publications

Vocal turn-taking in a non-human primate is learned during ontogeny

Vocal turn-taking in a non-human primate is learned during ontogeny

The Origin of Protoconversation: An Examination of Caregiver Responses to Cry and Speech-Like Vocalizations

Mother-Infant Contingent Vocalizations in 11 Countries

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