A Pattern of Common Acoustic Modification by Human Mothers to Gain Attention of a Child and by Macaques of others in Their Group

Abstract

Criticisms of how Niwano and Sugai (2002) conducted their analysis of pitch change in human mothers' repeated utterances to their children suggest mothers resort to utterance with elevated pitch when infants are initially unresponsive. When this phenomenon is compared with an evaluation of similar data for free-ranging macaques, a certain common pattern of human mothers and the macaques may be observed in seeking to gain the attention of another.

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