The role of mother-infant emotional synchrony in speech processing in 9-month-old infants

Vanoncini, Monica; Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie; Elsner, Birgit; Hoehl, Stefanie; Kayhan, Ezgi

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101772

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…This observed link between Agreeableness and complexity (Table S2) aligns with experimental evidence in which Agreeableness is associated with more dynamic movement patterns (e.g., phases of low/high activity/activation and relaxation, Koppensteiner, 2013). Entropy (i.e., unpredictability) can differ depending on the context and process which it expresses, such as mother–infant interactions in which more predictability and therefore low Entropy is desirable (Vanoncini et al, 2022); whether in other environments and systems dynamics, higher levels of Entropy can provide information about the complexity, flexibility of adaptation, learning, and functionality of behavior and processes (e.g., De Jonge‐Hoekstra et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interacting partner as the immediate environment: Personality, interpersonal dynamics, and bodily synchronization

Arellano-Véliz

Jeronimus

Kunnen

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality

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ObjectiveIn social interactions, humans tend to naturally synchronize their body movements. We investigated interpersonal synchronization in conversations and examined its relationship with personality differences and post‐interaction appraisals.MethodIn a 15‐minute semi‐structured conversation, 56 previously‐unfamiliar dyads introduced themselves, followed by self‐disclosing and argumentative conversations. Their bodily movements were video‐recorded in a standardized room (112 young adults, aged 18–33, mean = 20.54, SD = 2.74; 58% Dutch, 31% German, 11% other). Interpersonal bodily synchronization was estimated as (a) synchronization strength using Windowed Lagged Cross‐Correlations and (b) Dynamic Organization (Determinism/Entropy/Laminarity/Mean Line) using Cross‐Recurrence Quantification Analysis. Bodily synchronization was associated with differences in Agreeableness and Extraversion (IPIP‐NEO‐120) and post‐conversational appraisals (affect/closeness/enjoyment) in mixed‐effect models.ResultsAgreeable participants exhibited higher complexity in bodily synchronization dynamics (higher Entropy) than disagreeable individuals, who also reported more negative affect afterward. Interpersonal synchronization was stronger among extroverts than among introverts and extroverts appraised conversations as more positive and enjoyable. Bodily synchronization strength and dynamic organization were related to the type of conversation (self‐disclosing/argumentative).ConclusionsInterpersonal dynamics were intimately connected to differences in Agreeableness and Extraversion, varied across situations, and these parameters affected how pleasant, close, and enjoyable each conversation felt.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interacting partner as the immediate environment: Personality, interpersonal dynamics, and bodily synchronization

Arellano-Véliz

Jeronimus

Kunnen

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality

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“…Past research has revealed that infants’ speech segmentation skills are subject to individual variability. Factors that are associated with their speech segmentation performance are, for example, their babbling skills ( Hoareau et al, 2019 ) and their later lexicon size ( Newman et al, 2006 ; Junge et al, 2012 ), but also environmental factors such as the quantity of infant-directed speech input ( Hoareau et al, 2019 ) and social interactions with their mother ( Vanoncini et al, 2022 , 2024 ). In segmentation experiments using the head-turn paradigm, individual differences are often revealed as follows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants show systematic rhythmic motor responses while listening to rhythmic speech

Boll-Avetisyan,

Shandala,

Langus

2024

Front. Psychol.

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Rhythm is known to play an important role in infant language acquisition, but few infant language development studies have considered that rhythm is multimodal and shows strong connections between speech and the body. Based on the observation that infants sometimes show rhythmic motor responses when listening to auditory rhythms, the present study asked whether specific rhythm cues (pitch, intensity, or duration) would systematically increase infants’ spontaneous rhythmic body movement, and whether their rhythmic movements would be associated with their speech processing abilities. We used pre-existing experimental and video data of 148 German-learning 7.5- and 9.5-month-old infants tested on their use of rhythm as a cue for speech segmentation. The infants were familiarized with an artificial language featuring syllables alternating in pitch, intensity, duration, or none of these cues. Subsequently, they were tested on their recognition of bisyllables based on perceived rhythm. We annotated infants’ rhythmic movements in the videos, analyzed whether the rhythmic moving durations depended on the perceived rhythmic cue, and correlated them with the speech segmentation performance. The result was that infants’ motor engagement was highest when they heard a duration-based speech rhythm. Moreover, we found an association of the quantity of infants’ rhythmic motor responses and speech segmentation. However, contrary to the predictions, infants who exhibited fewer rhythmic movements showed a more mature performance in speech segmentation. In sum, the present study provides initial exploratory evidence that infants’ spontaneous rhythmic body movements while listening to rhythmic speech are systematic, and may be linked with their language processing. Moreover, the results highlight the need for considering infants’ spontaneous rhythmic body movements as a source of individual differences in infant auditory and speech perception.

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“…Accordingly, it has been proposed that the function of affect synchrony is to lay a foundation for infants to develop social understanding [15,19] and socio-affective skills [20–23]. Empirical research has shown that the degree to which infants and their parents coordinate overt expressions of affect correlates with infants’ socio-cognitive skills, such as self-regulation and empathy [24,25], joint attention [26], as well as language [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…overt expressions of affect correlates with infants' socio-cognitive skills, such as self-regulation and empathy [24,25], joint attention [26], as well as language [27].…”

Section: Introduction (A) Parent-infant Synchrony During Early Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Parent–infant affect synchrony during social and solo play

Kidby

Neale

Wass

et al. 2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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While mother–infant affect synchrony has been proposed to facilitate the early development of social understanding, most investigations into affect synchrony have concentrated more on negative than positive affect. We analysed affect sharing during parent–infant object play, comparing positive and negative affect, to examine how it is modulated by shared playful activity. Mother–infant dyads ( N = 20, average infant age 10.7 months) played together (social) or separately (solo) using an object. Both participants increased positive affect during social play as compared with solo play. Positive affect synchrony also increased during social play compared with solo play, whereas negative affect synchrony did not differ. Closer examination of the temporal dynamics of affect changes showed that infants' shifts to positive affect tended to occur contingently in response to their mothers', whereas mothers’ shifts to negative affect followed their infants'. Further, during social play, positive affect displays were more long-lived while negative more short-lived. While our sample was small and from a homogeneous population (e.g. white, highly educated parents), limiting the implications of the findings, these results demonstrate that maternal active engagement in playful interaction with her infant affords, increases, and extends infant positive affect and parent–infant positive affect synchrony, providing insights into how the social context modulates infants’ affective experiences. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction’.

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The role of mother-infant emotional synchrony in speech processing in 9-month-old infants

Cited by 6 publications

References 54 publications

The interacting partner as the immediate environment: Personality, interpersonal dynamics, and bodily synchronization

The interacting partner as the immediate environment: Personality, interpersonal dynamics, and bodily synchronization

Infants show systematic rhythmic motor responses while listening to rhythmic speech

Parent–infant affect synchrony during social and solo play

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