Temporal organization of cry sounds: a comparison of cry rhythmicity in infants with and without colic

The temporal organization underlying durational components of naturally occurring infant cries was examined in 46 1-month-old infants, half of whom had been diagnosed as having colic. In a standard 90-sec crying bout for each infant, the presence or absence of expired cry sound was determined at .05-sec intervals. Binary spectrum analysis of the data detected between 8 and 23 reliable cycles in the expiration of sound in the cries of all infants. The data were characterized by a wide range of individual differences in the frequencies at which these cycles occurred and in other characteristics of the spectra. Although infants with and without colic did not reliably differ in the mean, variability, or range of the durations of expirations or bursts, the two groups were distinguished by their distributions of the total number of peaks in the power spectrum and by the frequencies at which the highest power peak, slowest cycle, and fastest cycle occurred. This study provides the first known systematic examination of the rhythmicities underlying infant crying.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Parker-Price, Susan

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-03122009-040628

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/41462