The Perceptions of Infant Distress Signals Varying in Pitch by Cocaine‐Using Mothers

Abstract

Perceptual responses to infant distress signals were studied in 16 cocaine‐using and 15 comparison mothers. All mothers rated tape recordings of 48 replications of a newborn infant's hunger cry digitally altered to increase in fundamental frequency in 100‐Hz increments. Cries were rated on 4 perceptual (arousing, aversive, urgent, and sick) and 6 caregiving rating scale items (clean, cuddle, feed, give pacifier, pick up, and wait and see) used in previous studies. Analyses of variance showed that, as cry pitch increased, cries were rated as more arousing, aversive, and urgent sounding. The highest pitched cries received the highest ratings for caregiving interventions. Main effects for cocaine use showed cocaine‐using mothers (a) rated cries as less arousing, aversive, urgent, and sick; (b) indicated they were less likely to pick up or feed the infant; and (c) indicated they more likely to give the crying infant a pacifier or just “wait and see.” A Group x Cry Pitch interaction effect showed that mothers in the cocaine group gave higher ratings to wait and see as the pitch of the cries increased, whereas mothers in the comparison group gave lower ratings to wait and see as the pitch of the cries increased. These ratings indicate that cocaine‐using mothers found cries to be less perceptually salient and less likely to elicit nurturant caregiving responses. These results suggest that maternal cocaine use is associated with altered perceptions of infant distress signals that may provide the basis for differential social responsivity in the caregiving context.

Perceptions of distress in young children with autism compared to typically developing children: A cultural comparison between Japan and Italy

“…Moreover, considering the novelty of the cross-cultural comparison, these findings support earlier reports from Zeskind and Lester (2001) and from Esposito and Venuti (2008 Esposito and Venuti (2010) that exposed the role played by fundamental frequency and duration of pauses in determining the perception of distress expressed in crying (see also Schuetze et al, 2003; Zeskind & Marshall, 1988). Previous studies conducted in United States have determined that higher fundamental frequencies of cries are more likely to elicit perceptions of cries as more urgent and aversive than lower fundamental frequencies (Zeskind & Lester, 2001).…”

Physiological reactivity to infant crying: a behavioral genetic study

“…Changes in the Peak F 0 of these two cries were made with comparable changes in the harmonic structures of the seven cry expirations across the entire 10‐s cry sound segments while holding the temporal components constant. Digitally manipulated cry sounds have been successfully used in previous studies, showing their validity in terms of perception and (anticipated) caregiving responses (Dessureau et al 1998; Schuetze & Zeskind 2001; Schuetze et al 2003). The 500 Hz cry is characteristic of the cries of normal, healthy infants (LaGasse et al 2005); fundamental frequencies of 700 and 900 Hz (and even higher) are observed in transient pain cries of healthy infants (Porter et al 1988; Zeskind & Collins 1987) and also in the cries of infants with medical and neurological conditions (Soltis 2004).…”

Attachment and physiological reactivity to infant crying in young adulthood: Dissociation between experiential and physiological arousal in insecure adoptees

“…Two new 10-s cry stimuli were created by digitally increasing the original cry by approximately 200 and 400 Hz, respectively, resulting in two new cry sounds with an overall peak of F0 = 714.5 Hz (700 Hz cry) and F0 = 895.8 Hz (900 Hz cry). Digitally manipulated cry sounds have been successfully used in previous studies, showing their validity in terms of perception and (anticipated) caregiving responses [15,37,57,58]. The acoustic and temporal structure of the original cry sound is characteristic of the cries of normal, healthy infants (e.g., [42,66]).…”