title: Dog-directed speech: why do we use it and do dogs pay attention to it?
abstract: Pet-directed speech is strikingly similar to infant-directed speech, a peculiar speaking pattern with higher pitch and slower tempo known to engage infants' attention and promote language learning. Here, we report the first investigation of potential factors modulating the use of dog-directed speech, as well as its immediate impact on dogs' behaviour. We recorded adult participants speaking in front of pictures of puppies, adult and old dogs, and analysed the quality of their speech. We then performed playback experiments to assess dogs' reaction to dog-directed speech compared with normal speech. We found that human speakers used dog-directed speech with dogs of all ages and that the acoustic structure of dog-directed speech was mostly independent of dog age, except for sound pitch which was relatively higher when communicating with puppies. Playback demonstrated that, in the absence of other non-auditory cues, puppies were highly reactive to dog-directed speech, and that the pitch was a key factor modulating their behaviour, suggesting that this specific speech register has a functional value in young dogs. Conversely, older dogs did not react differentially to dog-directed speech compared with normal speech. The fact that speakers continue to use dog-directed with older dogs therefore suggests that this speech pattern may mainly be a spontaneous attempt to facilitate interactions with non-verbal listeners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, City University of New York, Hunter College, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Tobey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ben-Aderet
authors.affiliation: Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, ENES/Neuro-PSI CNRS UMR9197, University of Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gallego-Abenza
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9261-1711
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, City University of New York, Hunter College, New York, NY, USA mathevon@univ-st-etienne.fr.|Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, ENES/Neuro-PSI CNRS UMR9197, University of Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0219-6601
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mathevon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013060:Speech
keywords: acoustic communication; dog cognition; human–dog communication; hyperspeech; infant-directed speech; pet-directed speech