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Published on: April 19, 2017
The tuning of human neonates' preference for speech
Athena Vouloumanos1, Marc D Hauser, Janet F Werker
1Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. athena.vouloumanos@nyu.edu
Child Development
|May 5, 2010
Summary
Newborns do not inherently prefer human speech over monkey sounds. This preference for speech develops within the first three months of life, indicating a learned, species-specific auditory bias.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Auditory Perception
- Comparative Cognition
Background:
- Human neonates exhibit a preference for speech sounds over non-speech sounds.
- This early preference might stem from general acoustic properties shared with other species' vocalizations, not speech specificity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether human neonates possess an innate preference for human speech over non-human primate vocalizations.
- To determine if auditory preferences for speech mature within the first few months of life.
Main Methods:
- Thirty human neonates and sixteen 3-month-old infants were exposed to human speech and rhesus monkey vocalizations.
- Auditory preference was assessed by observing infant responses to different sound categories.
Main Results:
- Neonates did not show a preference between human speech and rhesus monkey vocalizations.
- Both neonates and 3-month-olds preferred these vocalizations over synthetic sounds.
- Three-month-olds demonstrated a clear preference for human speech over rhesus monkey vocalizations.
Conclusions:
- Human neonates' initial auditory biases are broad, encompassing both human speech and non-human primate vocalizations.
- Auditory preferences sharpen significantly within the first three months, leading to a species-specific bias for human speech.
- This developmental trajectory parallels findings in infant face perception, suggesting domain-general learning mechanisms.
