Background: Studies show that 65-85% of mothers cradle their infants to the left side of their bo... more Background: Studies show that 65-85% of mothers cradle their infants to the left side of their body, but that this bias changes with maternal mood and stress. The present study examines the hypothesis that maternal stress and depression status will influence the cradling bias differentially. Method: As part of a larger study on mother-infant interaction, mothers (N ¼ 79) were asked to pick up and briefly hold their children in their arms (44 boys, 35 girls; mean age 7.2 months, range 3 to 14 months). Results: Results indicated that 86% of mothers who were neither stressed nor depressed cradled to the left and 14% to the right. Comparing the cradling side of stressed mothers with those who were neither stressed nor depressed, more in the former group showed right-sided cradling. In contrast, mothers who were just depressed preferred to cradle to the left. Conclusion: The lack of a left-sided cradling bias might be due to stress rather than depression experienced by mothers.Furthermore, this study provides evidence that the state of maternal mental health might be indicated by the side on which they cradle their child preferentially.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1984
The hypothesis that the autistic child's impairment in social relatedness stems in part from unde... more The hypothesis that the autistic child's impairment in social relatedness stems in part from underlying deficits in self-recognition was explored. Fifteen autistic children ranging from 4 to 6 years of age were assessed for visual self-recognition ability, as well as for skills in two cognitive areas that are believed to be related to the development of self-recognition — object permanence and gestural imitation. It was found that 13 of 15 autistic children showed evidence of self-recognition. The two autistic children who lacked self-recognition were the only two children to perform poorly on the object permanence tasks, which suggests that these two cognitive domains may be closely linked in development. In contrast, there appeared to be no consistent relationship between motor imitation ability and self-recognition. It was concluded that the autistic child's social deficits are not due to a basic lack of differentiation between self and other.
The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a pref... more The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a preference for baby talk (BT) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Although prosodic modifications characteristic of BT also convey positive affect, differences in affect across BT and ADS speech registers have not been controlled in previous studies. This set of experiments sought to elucidate the basis for 6-month-olds' listening preference by independently manipulating affect and speech register. When affect was held constant, no preference for any speech register was observed. Moreover, when ADS stimuli presented more positive affect than BT stimuli, infants' preferences followed the positive affect. Higher and more variable pitch was neither necessary nor sufficient for determining infants' preferences, although pitch characteristics may modulate affect-based preferences. The BT preference is thus attributable to a more general preference for speech that imparts relatively positive affect, a preference perhaps ascribable to a preexisting generalpurpose mechanism opportunistically exploited by language.
Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1,... more Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 4-to 10year-old children and adults ( N ϭ 165) judged the happiness or sadness of the speaker from cues conveyed by propositional content and affective paralanguage. When the cues conflicted (i.e., a happy situation was described with sad paralanguage), children relied primarily on content, in contrast to adults, who relied on paralanguage. There were gradual developmental changes from 4-year-olds' almost exclusive focus on content to adults' exclusive focus on paralanguage. Children of all ages exhibited greater response latencies to utterances with conflicting cues than to those with nonconflicting cues, indicating that they processed both sources of emotional information. Children accurately labeled the affective paralanguage when the propositional cues to emotion were obscured by a foreign language (Experiment 2, N ϭ 20) or by low-pass filtering (Experiment 3, N ϭ 60). The findings are consistent with children's limited understanding of the communicative functions of affective paralanguage.
Mothers were recorded singing two versions of the same song, one to their infants and the other t... more Mothers were recorded singing two versions of the same song, one to their infants and the other to their preschool children. In Experiment 1, naive adult listeners accurately identified the infant-directed versions from each pair of mothers' songs. Pitch was higher for the infant-directed versions but tempo and intensity did not differ across contexts. In Experiment 2, naive listeners judged which version of each pair sounded more "loving" and which had clearer enunciation of lyrics. The versions sung to preschoolers were rated as more clearly enunciated than those sung to infants. Although there were no differences in "loving" tone of voice, "loving" ratings of infant-directed versions predicted identification accuracy.
Background: Studies show that 65-85% of mothers cradle their infants to the left side of their bo... more Background: Studies show that 65-85% of mothers cradle their infants to the left side of their body, but that this bias changes with maternal mood and stress. The present study examines the hypothesis that maternal stress and depression status will influence the cradling bias differentially. Method: As part of a larger study on mother-infant interaction, mothers (N ¼ 79) were asked to pick up and briefly hold their children in their arms (44 boys, 35 girls; mean age 7.2 months, range 3 to 14 months). Results: Results indicated that 86% of mothers who were neither stressed nor depressed cradled to the left and 14% to the right. Comparing the cradling side of stressed mothers with those who were neither stressed nor depressed, more in the former group showed right-sided cradling. In contrast, mothers who were just depressed preferred to cradle to the left. Conclusion: The lack of a left-sided cradling bias might be due to stress rather than depression experienced by mothers.Furthermore, this study provides evidence that the state of maternal mental health might be indicated by the side on which they cradle their child preferentially.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1984
The hypothesis that the autistic child's impairment in social relatedness stems in part from unde... more The hypothesis that the autistic child's impairment in social relatedness stems in part from underlying deficits in self-recognition was explored. Fifteen autistic children ranging from 4 to 6 years of age were assessed for visual self-recognition ability, as well as for skills in two cognitive areas that are believed to be related to the development of self-recognition — object permanence and gestural imitation. It was found that 13 of 15 autistic children showed evidence of self-recognition. The two autistic children who lacked self-recognition were the only two children to perform poorly on the object permanence tasks, which suggests that these two cognitive domains may be closely linked in development. In contrast, there appeared to be no consistent relationship between motor imitation ability and self-recognition. It was concluded that the autistic child's social deficits are not due to a basic lack of differentiation between self and other.
The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a pref... more The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a preference for baby talk (BT) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Although prosodic modifications characteristic of BT also convey positive affect, differences in affect across BT and ADS speech registers have not been controlled in previous studies. This set of experiments sought to elucidate the basis for 6-month-olds' listening preference by independently manipulating affect and speech register. When affect was held constant, no preference for any speech register was observed. Moreover, when ADS stimuli presented more positive affect than BT stimuli, infants' preferences followed the positive affect. Higher and more variable pitch was neither necessary nor sufficient for determining infants' preferences, although pitch characteristics may modulate affect-based preferences. The BT preference is thus attributable to a more general preference for speech that imparts relatively positive affect, a preference perhaps ascribable to a preexisting generalpurpose mechanism opportunistically exploited by language.
Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1,... more Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 4-to 10year-old children and adults ( N ϭ 165) judged the happiness or sadness of the speaker from cues conveyed by propositional content and affective paralanguage. When the cues conflicted (i.e., a happy situation was described with sad paralanguage), children relied primarily on content, in contrast to adults, who relied on paralanguage. There were gradual developmental changes from 4-year-olds' almost exclusive focus on content to adults' exclusive focus on paralanguage. Children of all ages exhibited greater response latencies to utterances with conflicting cues than to those with nonconflicting cues, indicating that they processed both sources of emotional information. Children accurately labeled the affective paralanguage when the propositional cues to emotion were obscured by a foreign language (Experiment 2, N ϭ 20) or by low-pass filtering (Experiment 3, N ϭ 60). The findings are consistent with children's limited understanding of the communicative functions of affective paralanguage.
Mothers were recorded singing two versions of the same song, one to their infants and the other t... more Mothers were recorded singing two versions of the same song, one to their infants and the other to their preschool children. In Experiment 1, naive adult listeners accurately identified the infant-directed versions from each pair of mothers' songs. Pitch was higher for the infant-directed versions but tempo and intensity did not differ across contexts. In Experiment 2, naive listeners judged which version of each pair sounded more "loving" and which had clearer enunciation of lyrics. The versions sung to preschoolers were rated as more clearly enunciated than those sung to infants. Although there were no differences in "loving" tone of voice, "loving" ratings of infant-directed versions predicted identification accuracy.
Uploads
Papers by Young Papou