Child-directed speech produced by mothers with symptoms of depression fails to promote associative learning in 4-month-old infants.
Child-directed (CD) speech segments produced by 20 mothers who varied in self-reported symptoms of depression, recorded during a structured play interaction with their 2- to 6-month-old infants, were used as conditioned stimuli with face reinforcers in a conditioned attention paradigm. After pairings of speech segments and faces, speech segments were assessed for their ability to increase time spent looking at a novel checker-board pattern (summation test) using 225 4-month-old infants of nondepressed mothers. Significant positive summation, an index of associative learning, was obtained in groups of infants tested with speech produced by mothers with comparatively fewer self-reported symptoms of depression (Beck Depression Inventory or BDI < or = 15). However, significant positive summation was not achieved using speech samples produced by mothers with comparatively more symptoms of depression (BDI > 15). These results indicate that the CD speech produced by mothers with symptoms of depression does not promote associative learning in infants.
Kaplan
P S
PS
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Denver 80217-3364, USA. pkaplan@carbon.cudenver.edu
Bachorowski
J A
JA
Zarlengo-Strouse
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002657:Child Development; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology