Goldstein Qalmri PDF

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Summary of Goldstein et al. research paper which is used to write an essay
Professor: Gros-Louis...

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Emma Caparula PSY:2401:0AAA

QALMRI (Goldstein et al.)

Q (Question) 1. Broad Question: a. Does human vocal/speech development parallel that of songbirds? b. Does social shaping play a role in human vocal/speech development? 2. Specific Questions: a. Is infant babbling facilitated by social responses? b. Do contingent responses to babbling promote vocal/speech maturation (more so than non-contingent responses)? A (Alternatives) 1. Maternal social feedback has no effect on infant babbling. 2. Contingent social responses do not promote more advanced infant babbling than noncontingent social responses. L (Logic) 1. If maternal social feedback affects infant babbling, the differing maternal response conditions should produce notably different levels of babbling between infants. 2. If contingent social responses promote more advanced infant babbling than noncontingent social responses, maternal responses manipulated to be contingent should correlate with more mature infant babbling. M (Method) Independent Variable: Maternal Response Contingency Dependent Variables: 1. Number of Infant Vocalizations 2. Quality of Infant Vocalizations Subjects: 30 Infants (Age 6 months - 10 months) Experimental Group: Contingent Condition Control Group: Yoked-Control Condition The infants were videotaped while interacting with their mothers in a playful

environment, and babbling was measured in relation to the level of contingency of maternal responses (Contingent Condition vs. Yoked-Control Condition). R (Results) Infants within the experimental (contingent) group showed an increase in number and quality of vocalizations. While the control (yoked-control) condition infants also vocalized frequently, they showed no difference in quality of vocalizations; Infants in the contingency group significantly increased syllable production, while the control group showed no change. Additionally, infants in the contingency group produced more full-voiced vocalizations, while the yoked-control group showed no change in voice level. I (Inferences) The results suggest that social feedback has an effect on human vocal development. More specifically, contingent maternal responses facilitate vocal learning in infants more so than noncontingent responses. This is also consistent with the vocal development of songbirds, so it supports the idea that human vocal development and avian vocal development may occur by way of similar mechanisms....