Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate listeners' feelings when hearing different crying sounds made by infants. Female college and graduate students (N=26, Mean age 21.77 years, SD 1.55) participated in this study. Acoustic stimuli were collected from infants (N=6, Age range 0-12 months) that were longitudinally observed twice a month for 6 to 7 months. Listeners were asked to choose a response on every trial after they listened to a sound of an infant crying. Results indicated that listeners' aversion to crying sounds did not always correspond with their estimates of infants' mood. Differences in responses based on infants' age suggested that older was an infant, the more aversive was his or her crying. Moreover, certain kinds of crying sounds did not result in a strong aversion, but rather gave rise to a sense of affection for the infant in adults. This type of crying might function as a baby schema.
