Results indicated that six cries differentially affected subjects' affective, self-reported, behavioral responses and tendency to report not hearing the cry. Participants were 53 male and 65 female psychology undergraduates and 58 mothers who were exposed to one of six types of infant cries. Higher pitched cries elicited less optimal responses…

College students listened to recordings of infant cries that varied in the duration of crying sounds and of pauses between crying sounds. Results indicated that the shorter the duration of the pause the more informative, arousing, and aversive was the cry in the judgment of the students. (BC)

Examined behavioral/physiological responses of 2-month-olds during physical examinations. Found that colic infants cried twice as much, cried more intensely, and were more inconsolable than control infants. Heart rate, vagal tone, and cortisol measures showed no appreciable difference. At home, colic infants displayed a blunted rhythm in cortisol…

Acoustic properties of the cries of 14 infants were evaluated at both 2 and 4 weeks of age when the infants were lying in a supine position and when they were sitting upright in a car seat. In the upright position, infants' breathing was more rapid and showed less individual variability. The fundamental frequency of their cries increased in the…

Variations in the aversiveness of a newborn's distress cry were examined by means of manipulation of features of fundamental frequency, intonation, and spectral complexity, and of information given to subjects about the infant's health status. Findings suggest that the listener's reaction to cry characteristics can be altered by the inducement of…

Four studies assessed adults' latencies to signal they would respond to infant crying as a function of perceived infant distress and contextual information relevant to caregiving. Results suggested that adults' responses are influenced by both acoustic gradations in the cry and the caregiving context. Ratings of degree of distress may be highly,…

Parents need to remember that crying is the first method of communication for children younger than 5 or 6. It is their way of getting attention. While it isn't easy for new parents to interpret their baby's cries, most learn to distinguish the "I am hungry--feed me" cry from the "My tummy hurts" or the "I am just fussy and bored" cry. This…

Used signal detection methodology to examine how cognitive set affects mothers' response to crying by "difficult" and "easy" infants. Found that increased mothers' sensitivity was associated with the "difficult" infant cognitive set and that mothers with high illusory control were least sensitive in detecting…

Parents, and adults inexperienced in child care rated intensities of infants' cries. The groups did not differ in their ratings. The cries of 6-month olds were rated more intense than 1-month olds. Amplitude and noisiness of cry predicted adult judgments of 1-year olds' cries. A measure of amplitude ratio predicted ratings of 6-month olds' cries.…

Conducted spectrum analysis of standard and vociferous cries from infants with Wessel's colic, non-Wessel's colic, and comparison infants. Vociferous cries had longer duration, higher fundamental frequency, and greater percentage of dysphonation than standard cries. After feedings, problematic criers had greater percentage of dysphonation in…

Research findings on articulatory and acoustic characteristics of infant noncry/nondistress vocalization are applied to the clinical assessment of infant noncry vocal activity. Discussed are differentiation and definitions of cry and noncry productions, stages of vocalization, a protocol for developmental vocal assessment, and interpretation of…

Thirty nonparent adults were classified as high or low on the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. Their heart rate and skin conductance were assessed as they listened to audiotapes of "normal" phonated infant cries and high-pitched, hyperphonated cries, and subjects rated the cries. Marginal differences were found between groups.…

Previous research has investigated the effect of maternal soothing behaviors on reducing infant reactivity but not the differential effects of specific maternal behaviors on infant stress responses. The present study investigated maternal regulation of 2- and 6-month-olds' responses to an inoculation and found a significant decline with age in…

In one experiment, sucrose arrested crying and reduced heart rate and gross activity in 2-week-olds but was ineffective in calming 4-week-olds unless accompanied by eye contact. In a second experiment, for 4-week-olds who received sucrose without eye contact or water with eye contact, the reduction in crying was modest and not sustained.…

The study with 32 male college students supported previous studies depicting the infant cry as a stressful and aversive event, capable of eliciting increased drinking. Subjects who heard an infant cry consumed significantly more alcohol and reported feeling more aversion, arousal, and distress than subjects who listened to a smoke alarm.…