Dr. Anthony James "Tony" DeCasper studied humans in the prenatal and newborn stage in the 1980s and was one of few researchers who focused on such a specific area. DeCasper focused mostly on auditory impact on cognitive abilities of prenatal and newborns, and concocted a unique way of studying such phenomena, as it was similar to operant conditioning. He noticed a correspondence between newborn sucking actions and avian pecking actions in a burst-pause sequence. DeCasper then played the sound of their mother's voice and a voice of an unknown woman and he allowed them to "choose" which of the two that were being played by changing their temporal patterns of their own sucking pattern. DeCasper found that these sucking burst occurrences were correlated with the preceding pause. DeCasper was also used to measure the responsiveness of an infant to complex, naturalistic and auditory instances with results showing more evidence of memory and selective attention, along with the impact of prenatal exposure for early perception, behavior, and cognitive development.
DeCasper also found evidence that infants and newborns will recognize their mother's voice, as they chose to hear their mother's voice over that of a female stranger. DeCasper is best known for this discovery, as well his discoveries in prenatal and neonatal perception can contribute to cognitive development in humans.
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