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Publication details for Dr Nadja Reissland
Reissland, N 2000. The cradling bias in relation to pitch of maternal child-directedlanguage. British Journal Of Developmental Psychology 18: 179-186.- Publication type: Journal papers: academic
- ISSN/ISBN: 0261-510X
Author(s) from Durham
Abstract
In research on cradling, the leftward cradling bias has been observed
in the context of holding infants ranging in age from birth to 18
months. Mothers' expression of emotion and their control of infant
emotion may influence cradling preference (e.g. Weiland & Sperber,
1970). Research on the pitch of child-directed speech has found that
mothers express their emotions to pre-verbal infants by using different
pitch (F-O) Specifically, they use different pitch depending on whether
they are conveying to their pre-verbal infants messages encouraging
attention or soothing the infant. Following these findings the present
study tested the hypothesis that mothers cradling on the right in
comparison with mothers cradling on the left will speak with a higher
mean pitch to attract their infants' attention. it was found that
mothers (N = 13) cradling right (mean pitch = 221.11 Hz; mean amplitude
= 55.78 dB) compared with mothers (N = 18) cradling left (mean pitch =
171.33 Hz; mean amplitude = 49.20 dB) spoke with a higher pitch and
amplitude. Furthermore, a comparison of mean pitch and amplitude of
those mothers (N = 14) who cradled both right and left showed that the
same mothers spoke with a higher pitch and amplitude when cradling
right (mean pitch = 234.62 Hz; mean amplitude = 53.20 dB) in comparison
with cradling left (mean pitch = 179.86 Hz; mean amplitude = 48.87 dB).