Elena Hoicka

Acoustic differences between humorous and sincere communicative intentions

Previous studies indicate that the acoustic features of speech discriminate between positive and negative communicative intentions, such as approval and prohibition. Two studies investigated whether acoustic features of speech can discriminate between two positive communicative intentions: humour and sweet-sincerity, where sweet-sincerity involved being sincere in a positive, warm-hearted way. In Study 1, 22 mothers read a book containing humorous, sweet-sincere, and neutral-sincere images to their 19- to 24-month-olds. In Study 2, 41 mothers read a book containing humorous or sweet-sincere sentences and images to their 18- to 24-month-olds. Mothers used a higher mean F0 to communicate visual humour as compared to visual sincerity. Mothers used greater F0 mean, range, and standard deviation; greater intensity mean, range, and standard deviation; and a slower speech rate to communicate verbal humour as compared to verbal sweet-sincerity. Mothers used a rising linear contour to communicate verbal humour, but used no specific contour to express verbal sweet-sincerity. We conclude that speakers provide acoustic cues enabling listeners to distinguish between positive communicative intentions.

Fifteen-Month-Old Infants Match Vocal Cues to Intentional Actions

Fifteen-month-old infants detected a violation when an actor performed an action that did not match her preceding vocal cue: The infants looked reliably longer when the actor expressed a humorous vocal cue followed by a sweet action or expressed a sweet vocal cue followed by a humorous action, than when the vocal cue was followed by a matching action. The infants failed to detect the mismatch when one person expressed the vocal cue and another performed the action. The results suggest that by 15 months of age, infants are capable of distinguishing between two types of vocal cues and actions along the positive emotional spectrum: humor and sweetness. Furthermore, they match humorous vocal cues to humorous actions and sweet vocal cues to sweet actions only when the cues and actions are made by the same person.

Liar, liar, working memory on fire: Investigating the role of working memory in childhood verbal deception

The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of working memory in verbal deception in children. We presented 6- and 7-year-olds with a temptation resistance paradigm; they played a trivia game and were then given an opportunity to peek at the final answers on the back of a card. Measures of both verbal and visuospatial working memory were included. The good liars performed better on the verbal working memory test in both processing and recall compared with the bad liars. However, there was no difference in visuospatial working scores between good liars and bad liars. This pattern suggests that verbal working memory plays a role in processing and manipulating the multiple pieces of information involved in lie-telling.

Individual Differences and Age-Related Changes in Divergent Thinking in Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Divergent thinking shows the ability to search for new ideas, which is an important factor contributing to innovation and problem solving. Current divergent thinking tests allow researchers to study childrens divergent thinking from the age of 3 years on. This article presents the first measure of divergent thinking that can be used with children as young as 2 years. The Unusual Box test is a nonverbal and nonimitative test in which children play individually with a novel toy and novel objects. Divergent thinking is scored as the number of different actions performed. Study 1 shows that the Unusual Box test is a valid measure of divergent thinking as it correlates with standard measures of divergent thinking in 3- and 4-year-olds. Study 2 indicates that the test can be used with 2-year-olds, as it shows high test-retest reliability, demonstrating that 2-year-olds can think divergently. Across both studies, individual differences and age-related changes were found, indicating that some children are better at divergent thinking than others and that childrens divergent thinking increases with age. This test will allow researchers to gain insight into the early emergence of divergent thinking.