Tempo as a perceptual cue for judgement of infant cries.

Abstract

Cry stimuli with a variety of tempi were generated by changing the durations of some original cries using linear time-scale conversion. Subjects who had had no experience in infant care were instructed to identify the stimuli by making a forced-choice among the three categories: hunger, anger, and call. The analysis indicates that tempo is one reliable cue for cry judgement, especially for the discrimination between cries of hunger and anger.