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Auditory–oral matching behavior in newborns
Author(s) -
Chen Xin,
Striano Tricia,
Rakoczy Hannes
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00321.x
Subject(s) - imitation , psychology , consonant , context (archaeology) , sound (geography) , matching (statistics) , vowel , audiology , communication , speech recognition , acoustics , social psychology , computer science , medicine , paleontology , physics , pathology , biology
Twenty‐five newborn infants were tested for auditory–oral matching behavior when presented with the consonant sound /m/ and the vowel sound /a/ – a precursor behavior to vocal imitation. Auditory–oral matching behavior by the infant was operationally defined as showing the mouth movement appropriate for producing the model sound just heard (mouth opening for /a/ and mouth clutching for /m/), even when the infant produced no sound herself. With this new dependent measure, the current study is the first to show matching behavior to consonant sounds in newborns: infants showed significantly more instances of mouth opening after /a/ models than after /m/ models, and more instances of mouth clutching after /m/ models than after /a/ models. The results are discussed in the context of theories of active intermodal mapping and innate releasing mechanisms.