2023-07-08 06:00:12
Babies and puppies have at least two things in common: in addition to their quality as newborns, they cause human mothers to have a positive emotional state that encourages them to articulate better when speaking. This conclusion is the result of research by an international team, including Alejandrina Cristia, a CNRS researcher (The National Center for Scientific Research, better known by its acronym CNRS, is the largest…) at the Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences and psycholinguistics (CNRS/EHESS/ENS-PSL), is a member.
Photograph of a mother and a puppy.
© dr. Mark Panneton
In order to understand why mothers articulate more when talking to children, scientists studied the vocal behavior of ten mothers. For regarding ten minutes, they had to talk to a puppy, to their infant (The word infant designates the period between the age of one month and two years…) of six months (The month ( From Lat. mensis “month”, and formerly Plur. “menses”) is a period of time…) or to an adult. From recordings, the researchers extracted each vowel, studied their acoustic characteristics and then measured the emotions they expressed for adults who did not know in what context (The context of an event includes the circumstances and conditions that surround; the…) every vowel had been pronounced.
Surprisingly, the researchers found that mothers articulate better, but also express more positive emotions, when talking to their babies or puppies. Under these conditions, they exhibit a range of positive emotions, correlated with changes in their vocalizations. Different studies reveal that hyperarticulation leads to clearer pronunciation of words and thus makes it easier for infants to process language.
Published in the Journal of Child Language on July 1, these results show that future studies of mother tongue should take into consideration the emotional state of individuals.
Reference
Positive Valence Contributes to Hyperarticulation in Maternal Speech to Infants and Puppies.
Robin Panneton, Alejandrina Cristia, Caroline Taylor and Christine Moon.
Journal of Child Language, July 1, 2023.
1688799724
#articulate #talk #babies.. #puppies
