IMITATION OF INTONATION BY INFANTS

Children between 9 and 12 months of age were studied to determine if they would spontaneously imitate either the average fundamental frequency or the fundamental frequency contour of their speaking partners. In the first experiment, children were recorded at home as they interacted with their fathers and mothers. Acoustic analyses failed to reveal any tendency on the part of the infants to adjust vocal pitch, amplitude, or duration to those of their speaking partners. In a second experiment, children were recorded while interacting with their parents in a laboratory setting. Again, there were no indications that the children imitated the vocal patterns of their speaking partners.