Forms and functions of vocal matching in interactions between mothers and their precanonical infants

Seventeen mothers were recorded monthly in the laboratory during spontaneous dialogues with their 2-, 3-, and 5-month-old infants. The occurrence of vocal matching was analysed on the basis of perceptual similarity between adjacent maternal and infant utterances in relation to six sound features. Reciprocal vocal matching occurred in an aver age of 41% to 57% of infant non-cry vocalizations. With age, matches became more complex in number and types of included features. The high incidence of vocal matching primarily depended on mothers' propensities to model appropriately and match the infant's precanoni cal sounds. Various didactic strategies which were observed in mothers are discussed as a species-specific social support to the infants' early development of imitative abilities, vocal production, and communica tion.

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