Adult Perception of Emotion Intensity in Human Infant Cries: Effects of Infant Age and Cry Acoustics

The relation between adult perception of emotion intensity in the cries of 1‐ and 6‐month‐old infants and the acoustic characteristics of the cries was examined. In the first study, adults who were inexperienced in child care rated 40 cries on 3 emotion intensity scales: anger, fear, and distress. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1996-12, Vol.67 (6), p.3238-3249
Main Authors: Leger, Daniel W., Thompson, Ross A., Merritt, Jacquelyn A., Benz, Joseph J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Affect
Age Differences
Age Factors
Babies
Biological and medical sciences
Child development
Crying
Developmental psychology
Emotional intensity
Emotional Response
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Male
Newborn. Infant
Parents
Perceptions
Predictor Variables
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Speech Acoustics
Speech Perception
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Summary:The relation between adult perception of emotion intensity in the cries of 1‐ and 6‐month‐old infants and the acoustic characteristics of the cries was examined. In the first study, adults who were inexperienced in child care rated 40 cries on 3 emotion intensity scales: anger, fear, and distress. The cries of 6‐month‐olds were rated as being significantly more intense. Different acoustic variables accounted for emotion intensity ratings for the 2 infant ages. Peak amplitude and noisiness of the cry predicted adult judgments of intensity ratings of 1‐month‐olds' cries; a measure of amplitude ratio (in 2 frequency bands) was the best predictor of intensity ratings of 6‐month‐olds' cries. In the second study, parents of infants rated the same cries on the same scales. They also rated the older infants' cries as being more intense. The 2 adult groups did not differ on their ratings, and a regression equation derived from one adult group predicted the other adult group's rating of the same infant age better than it predicted its own ratings for the other infant age. Infant age, and its associated acoustic features, seems to be a more important determinant of adults' perception of emotion intensity than are such adult characteristics as gender or infant‐care experience.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01911.x