Mother-Child Relationships Project (MCRP) aims to assess young children’s ability to effectively regulate physiological arousal and sustain attention in response to challenge. Maternal supportive behavior throughout these challenges is assessed by way of the maternal response prosody, or the rhythm and intonation of speech assessed via the acoustic properties of speech signal. Through the findings in this study, the PIs will be able to address the acoustic properties of language that may elicit parasympathetic activity, and the ways in which social experiences affect child attention and behavior.

Collaborators:
Dr. Daniel Berry (University of Minnesota)
Jennifer Cole (Northwestern University)

Graduate Students:
Nyssa Bulkes
Bill Bryce
Tim Marht
Niyantri Ravindran
Helen Emery
Xi Chen

Funded by:
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
National Science Foundation