Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study

Soderstrom, M., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Munoz, L. E., Bochynska, A., Werker, J. F., Skarabela, B., Seidl, A., Ryjova, Y., Rennels, J. L., Potter, C. E., Paulus, M., Ota, M., Olesen, N. M., Nave, K. M., Mayor, J., Martin, A., Machon, L. C., Lew-Williams, C., Ko, E.-S., Kim, H. Soderstrom, M., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Munoz, L. E., Bochynska, A., Werker, J. F., Skarabela, B., Seidl, A., Ryjova, Y., Rennels, J. L., Potter, C. E., Paulus, M., Ota, M., Olesen, N. M., Nave, K. M., Mayor, J., Martin, A., Machon, L. C., Lew-Williams, C., Ko, E.-S., Kim, H., Kartushina, N., Kammermeier, M., Jessop, A., Hay, J. F., Hannon, E. E., Hamlin, J. K., Havron, N., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Gampe, A., Fritzsche, T., Frank, M. C., Durrant, S., Davies, C., Cashon, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Black, A. K., Bergmann, C., Anderson, L., Alshakhori, M. K., Al-Hoorie, A. H., & Tsui, A. S. M. (2024). Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study. Journal of Child Language. Advance online publication. doi:10.1017/S0305000924000254.
From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary size. Infants’ preference for IDS was tested as part of the ManyBabies 1 project, and follow-up CDI data were collected from a subsample of this dataset at 18 and 24 months. A total of 341 (18 months) and 327 (24 months) infants were tested across 21 laboratories. In neither preregistered analyses with North American and UK English, nor exploratory analyses with a larger sample did we find evidence for a relation between IDS preference and later vocabulary. We discuss implications of this finding in light of recent work suggesting that IDS preference measured in the laboratory has low test-retest reliability.
Additional information
supplementary material
Publication type
Journal article
Publication date
2024

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