Infants' attentional responses to frequency modulated sweeps

Child Dev. 1986 Apr;57(2):287-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1986.tb00027.x.

Abstract

In 3 experiments, the attentional responses of 4-month-old infants to frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps corresponding to the frequency range of adult-to-infant and adult-to-adult intonation patterns were assessed. In Experiment 1, infants were observed to discriminate "exaggerated" (i.e., adult-to-infant) FM sweeps from "normal" (i.e., adult-to-adult) FM sweeps in a habituation-dishabituation paradigm but did not selectively attend to one over the other. In Experiment 2, where the same stimuli were used in a paired-comparison paradigm, again no differential attention was observed. In Experiment 3, the most exaggerated sweep was paired against a continuous, monotonic pure tone, but again no difference in salience was observed. These data suggest that the extent of modulation or intonation of an auditory stimulus per se does not constitute a salient cue for infants' attention to sound.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Arousal
  • Attention*
  • Habituation, Psychophysiologic
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Pitch Discrimination*
  • Psychology, Child*