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Social interaction shapes babbling: testing parallels between birdsong and speech
Michael H Goldstein1, Andrew P King, Meredith J West
1Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA 17604, USA.
Summary
Human infants
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Comparative psychology
- Linguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Birdsong is a model for human speech development.
- Social shaping is a selective learning process in songbirds.
- Limited direct tests of analogs between birdsong and human speech development exist.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the social shaping mechanism of phonological development in human infants.
- To investigate the role of maternal social feedback in infant vocal development.
- To explore parallels between songbird and human vocal learning.
Main Methods:
- Mothers' reactions to 8-month-old infants' vocalizations were manipulated.
- Contingent and noncontingent maternal behaviors were compared.
- Changes in infant vocalizations were analyzed before, during, and after the manipulation.
Main Results:
- Infant babbling phonological features are sensitive to nonimitative social stimulation.
- Contingent maternal behavior, not noncontingent, facilitated more complex and mature infant vocal behavior.
- Observed changes in infant vocalizations persisted after the manipulation, demonstrating rapid shifts to advanced sounds.
Conclusions:
- Social feedback facilitates immediate transitions in infant vocal behavior.
- Social interaction drives rapid shifts to developmentally advanced sounds in infants.
- Social shaping is a general process underlying the development of both human speech and birdsong, challenging the primacy of imitation in vocal learning.