Dataset Information

Pet-directed speech draws adult dogs' attention more efficiently than Adult-directed speech.

ABSTRACT: Humans speak to dogs using a special speech register called Pet-Directed Speech (PDS) which is very similar to Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) used by parents when talking to young infants. These two type of speech share prosodic features that are distinct from the typical Adult-Directed Speech (ADS): a high pitched voice and an increased pitch variation. So far, only one study has investigated the effect of PDS on dogs' attention. We video recorded 44 adult pet dogs and 19 puppies when listening to the same phrase enounced either in ADS or in PDS or in IDS. The phrases were previously recorded and were broadcasted via a loudspeaker placed in front of the dog. The total gaze duration of the dogs toward the loudspeaker, was used as a proxy of attention. Results show that adult dogs are significantly more attentive to PDS than to ADS and that their attention significantly increases along with the rise of the fundamental frequency of human' speech. It is likely that the exaggerated prosody of PDS is used by owners as an ostensive cue for dogs that facilitates the effectiveness of their communication, and should represent an evolutionarily determined adaptation that benefits the regulation and maintenance of their relationships.

SUBMITTER: Jeannin S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5504008 | biostudies-other | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Pet-directed speech draws adult dogs' attention more efficiently than Adult-directed speech.

Jeannin Sarah S Gilbert Caroline C Amy Mathieu M Leboucher Gérard G

Scientific reports 20170710 1

Humans speak to dogs using a special speech register called Pet-Directed Speech (PDS) which is very similar to Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) used by parents when talking to young infants. These two type of speech share prosodic features that are distinct from the typical Adult-Directed Speech (ADS): a high pitched voice and an increased pitch variation. So far, only one study has investigated the effect of PDS on dogs' attention. We video recorded 44 adult pet dogs and 19 puppies when listening t ...[more]

PMID: 28694512

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Project description:ObjectivesCochlear implants (CIs) are remarkable in allowing individuals with severe to profound hearing loss to perceive speech. Despite these gains in speech understanding, however, CI users often struggle to perceive elements such as vocal emotion and prosody, as CIs are unable to transmit the spectro-temporal detail needed to decode affective cues. This issue becomes particularly important for children with CIs, but little is known about their emotional development. In a previous study, pediatric CI users showed deficits in voice emotion recognition with child-directed stimuli featuring exaggerated prosody. However, the large intersubject variability and differential developmental trajectory known in this population incited us to question the extent to which exaggerated prosody would facilitate performance in this task. Thus, the authors revisited the question with both adult-directed and child-directed stimuli.DesignVocal emotion recognition was measured using both child-directed (CDS) and adult-directed (ADS) speech conditions. Pediatric CI users, aged 7-19 years old, with no cognitive or visual impairments and who communicated through oral communication with English as the primary language participated in the experiment (n = 27). Stimuli comprised 12 sentences selected from the HINT database. The sentences were spoken by male and female talkers in a CDS or ADS manner, in each of the five target emotions (happy, sad, neutral, scared, and angry). The chosen sentences were semantically emotion-neutral. Percent correct emotion recognition scores were analyzed for each participant in each condition (CDS vs. ADS). Children also completed cognitive tests of nonverbal IQ and receptive vocabulary, while parents completed questionnaires of CI and hearing history. It was predicted that the reduced prosodic variations found in the ADS condition would result in lower vocal emotion recognition scores compared with the CDS condition. Moreover, it was hypothesized that cognitive factors, perceptual sensitivity to complex pitch changes, and elements of each child's hearing history may serve as predictors of performance on vocal emotion recognition.ResultsConsistent with our hypothesis, pediatric CI users scored higher on CDS compared with ADS speech stimuli, suggesting that speaking with an exaggerated prosody-akin to "motherese"-may be a viable way to convey emotional content. Significant talker effects were also observed in that higher scores were found for the female talker for both conditions. Multiple regression analysis showed that nonverbal IQ was a significant predictor of CDS emotion recognition scores while Years using CI was a significant predictor of ADS scores. Confusion matrix analyses revealed a dependence of results on specific emotions; for the CDS condition's female talker, participants had high sensitivity (d' scores) to happy and low sensitivity to the neutral sentences while for the ADS condition, low sensitivity was found for the scared sentences.ConclusionsIn general, participants had higher vocal emotion recognition to the CDS condition which also had more variability in pitch and intensity and thus more exaggerated prosody, in comparison to the ADS condition. Results suggest that pediatric CI users struggle with vocal emotion perception in general, particularly to adult-directed speech. The authors believe these results have broad implications for understanding how CI users perceive emotions both from an auditory communication standpoint and a socio-developmental perspective.

Project description:OBJECTIVES:Relatively little is known about how young children with hearing impairment (HI) learn novel words in infant- and adult-directed speech (ADS). Infant-directed speech (IDS) supports word learning in typically developing infants relative to ADS. This study examined how children with normal hearing (NH) and children with HI learn novel words in IDS and ADS. It was predicted that IDS would support novel word learning in both groups of children. In addition, children with HI were expected to be less proficient word learners as compared with their NH peers. DESIGN:A looking-while-listening paradigm was used to measure novel word learning in 16 children with sensorineural HI (age range 23.2 to 42.1 months) who wore either bilateral hearing aids (n = 10) or bilateral cochlear implants (n = 6) and 16 children with NH (age range 23.1 to 42.1 months) who were matched for gender, chronological age, and maternal education level. Two measures of word learning were assessed (accuracy and reaction time). Each child participated in two experiments approximately 1 week apart, one in IDS and one in ADS. RESULTS:Both groups successfully learned the novel words in both speech type conditions, as evidenced by children looking at the correct picture significantly above chance. As a group, children with NH outperformed children with HI in the novel word learning task; however, there were no significant differences between performance on IDS versus ADS. More fine-grained time course analyses revealed that children with HI, and particularly children who use hearing aids, had more difficulty learning novel words in ADS, compared with children with NH. CONCLUSIONS:The pattern of results observed in the children with HI suggests that they may need extended support from clinicians and caregivers, through the use of IDS, during novel word learning. Future research should continue to focus on understanding the factors (e.g., device type and use, age of intervention, audibility, acoustic characteristics of input, etc.) that may influence word learning in children with HI in both IDS and ADS.

Dataset Information

Pet-directed speech draws adult dogs' attention more efficiently than Adult-directed speech.

Publications

Pet-directed speech draws adult dogs' attention more efficiently than Adult-directed speech.

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