| Infants just 6 months old
can match the sounds of an angry snarl and a friendly yap to photos of
dogs displaying threatening and welcoming body language.
The new findings come on the heels of a study from the
same Brigham Young University lab showing that infants can detect mood
swings in Beethoven’s music.
Though the mix of dogs and babies sounds silly,
experiments of this kind help us understand how babies learn so rapidly.
Long before they master speech, babies recognize and respond to the tone
of what’s going on around them.
“Emotion is one of the first things babies pick up on
in their social world,” said BYU psychology professor Ross Flom, lead
author of the study.
Flom and two BYU students report their latest “amazing
baby” findings in the journal Developmental
Psychology.
“We chose dogs because they are highly communicative
creatures both in their posture and the nature of their bark,” Flom
said.
In the experiment, the babies first saw two different
pictures of the same dog, one in an aggressive posture and the other in
a friendly stance. Then the researchers played – in random order – sound
clips of a friendly and an aggressive dog bark.
“They only had one trial because we didn’t want them
to learn it on the fly and figure it out,” Flom said.
While the recordings played, the 6-month-old babies
spent most of their time staring at the appropriate picture. Older
babies usually made the connection instantly with their very first
glance.
Study co-authors Dan Hyde and Heather Whipple
Stephenson conducted the experiments as undergrads and don’t recall any
babies getting upset.
“Many of them enjoyed it,” said Hyde. “Others just
looked.”
“Infants are pretty cooperative subjects,” Stephenson
added.
The mentored research experience helped Hyde and
Stephenson secure spots at prestigious grad schools. Hyde is currently
at Harvard working toward a Ph.D. in developmental psychology. Fellow
co-author Heather Whipple Stephenson recently completed a master’s
degree in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota.
“With this study, my favorite part was watching a
somewhat zany idea grow into a legitimate research project,” Stephenson
said.
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