AIRS 4th Annual Meeting: 2012

Title: Is This Novel or Familiar? Infants' Looking Responses to Infant-Directed Speaking and
Singing
Authors: Sara Murphy (St. Francis Xavier University), Charlene Parker (Dalhousie University),
Petra Hauf (St. Francis Xavier University)

Abstract

Introduction: By 6 months of age, infants become increasingly interested in their environment
(Legerstee et al., 1987). Thus, it is important to understand how social partners should interact
with infants so that infants can benefit from attending to these interests. Recent research on
infant-mother dyads suggests that infant-directed singing promotes engagement and attention,
while infant-directed speaking facilitates heightened arousal and infant learning (Nakata &
Trehub, 2004).
Method: To further investigate infants’; responsiveness to these two vocal styles, the present
study investigated 24 6-month old infants’ responses to infant-directed singing and speaking
from a non-maternal source. Infants watched audiovisual stimuli presenting an adult engaging
in infant-directed-singing and speaking of both familiar and novel lyrics. During the
presentation, infants’ looking behaviour was recorded with respect to overall looking time, and
looking time to the mouth and the eye regions.
Results: Overall, looking time was significantly longer for episodes of infant-directed singing
than for infant-directed speaking of familiar and novel lyrics, suggesting increased engagement
in singing episodes. Analyzes of the proportional looking time for the mouth and the eye
regions revealed that infants prefer attending to the mouth rather than the eyes when shown
singing and speaking episodes of a familiar song. When the novel lyric was spoken, infants
preferred attending to the mouth, however when the novel lyric was sung, infants attended to
the mouth and the eyes equally long. This may indicate that infants are interested in emotional
information when shown a novel song. Data from 12-month old infants is currently being
collected to investigate developmental changes in relation to language onset.
Discussion: Findings could have implications for infant learning and adult-infant interaction,
suggesting that infant-directed singing may promote emotional engagement, while infantdirected speaking may facilitate information processing.