Mother-infant vocal interactions serve multiple functions in child development, but it remains unclear whether key features of these interactions are community-common or community-specific. We examined rates, interrelations, and contingencies of vocal interactions in 684 mothers and their 5½-month-old infants in diverse communities in 11 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, and the United States). Rates of mothers’ and infants’ vocalizations varied widely across communities and were uncorrelated. However, collapsing the data across communities, we found that mothers’ vocalizations to infants were contingent on the offset of the infants’ nondistress vocalizing, infants’ vocalizations were contingent on the offset of their mothers’ vocalizing, and maternal and infant contingencies were significantly correlated. These findings point to the beginnings of dyadic conversational turn taking. Despite broad differences in the overall talkativeness of mothers and infants, maternal and infant contingent vocal responsiveness is found across communities, supporting essential functions of turn taking in early-childhood socialization.

中文翻译：

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11 个国家的母婴偶然发声


母婴声音互动在儿童发展中具有多种功能，但目前尚不清楚这些互动的关键特征是社区共有的还是社区特有的。我们研究了 11 个国家（阿根廷、比利时、巴西、喀麦隆、法国、以色列、意大利、日本、肯尼亚、韩国、和美国）。不同社区的母亲和婴儿的发声率差异很大，并且不相关。然而，通过整合各个社区的数据，我们发现母亲对婴儿的发声取决于婴儿非遇险发声的抵消，婴儿的发声取决于母亲发声的抵消，并且母婴意外事件显着相关。这些发现表明二元对话轮流的开始。尽管母亲和婴儿的整体健谈能力存在巨大差异，但在不同社区中发现母亲和婴儿的偶然声音反应能力，支持幼儿社会化中轮流的基本功能。