Status: COMPLETE
Contact: Michael C. Frank
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2329 babies tested by 69 labs
149 authors from 21 countries on Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science publication
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In the first ManyBabies project, we replicated a robust finding from developmental literature: infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). IDS is characterized by a higher pitch, greater pitch excursions, and shorter utterances when compared to ADS. Exposure to IDS has been shown to improve word segmentation and word learning. We asked if infants have a preference for IDS, and how this preference varies across age, native language background, and method.
Sixty-nine labs from 16 countries participated and collected data from 2,329 infants (range: 3-15 months old). We focused on three primary methods for assessing infants’ interest: single-screen central fixation, eye tracking, and the head-turn preference procedure (HPP).
Results
- Confirmed that infants prefer to listen to infant-directed speech relative to adult-directed speech (Figure 1)
- Stronger effect in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect (North American English, or NAE), and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure (magnitude of 0.05 SDs per month), suggesting a modulation by experience, maturation, or both (Figure 2)
- IDS preference even among participants whose native language or dialect was not NAE (Figure 2, right panel)
- Effect strongest with the HPP relative to central-fixation or eye-tracking approaches; one potential interpretation of this finding is that the greater effort on the part of the infant in the HPP (i.e., turning the head, as opposed to making small eye movements) leads to stronger engagement in the task and therefore to stronger effects (Figure 1, top panel)
Figure 1. Forest plot of the meta-analytic results for infant-directed-speech preference. The standardized effect size is shown for each lab; error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. Labs are grouped into separate panels by method: head-turn preference procedure (HPP), eye tracking, or central fixation. Larger plotted points correspond to greater inverse variance. In each panel, the diamond and associated error bars represent the meta-analytic estimate from the method-moderated model and the estimate’s 95% confidence interval. The bottom panel shows the global meta-analytic estimate and 95% confidence interval from the unmoderated model. Reproduced from The ManyBabies Consortium, 2020 (©, the authors).
Figure 2. Individual labs’ standardized effect-size estimates as a function of age group. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals, and larger plotted points correspond to larger samples. The color coding indicates the method used: central fixation, eye tracking, or head-turn preference procedure (HPP). Also shown are regression smoothing lines, with gray bands indicating 95% confidence intervals. Results are shown separately for infants learning North American English (left panel) and infants learning other languages and dialects (right panel). Reproduced from The ManyBabies Consortium, 2020 (©, the authors).
Links
- Protocols and Documentation: MB1-OSF
- Data, analysis code, and study materials: MB1-OSF Registration
- Walkthrough videos: Databrary
- News: MB1-news
Project Leads
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Michael C. Frank, Stanford University
[email]
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Melanie Soderstrom, University of Manitoba [email]
Spin-off Projects
MB1-Africa: Infant-Directed Speech Preference in African Infants - MB1B: Infant-Directed Speech Preference in Bilingual Infants
- MB1G: Gaze Following in Monolingual and Bilingual Infants
- MB1L: Longitudinal Vocabulary Follow-up
- MB1N: Native Languages Follow-up
- MB1T: Test-Retest Follow-up
MB1-Demo: Analysis of supplemental demographic variables- MB1-Meta: Comparison to meta-analytic data
MB1 Contributors
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Publications
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Katherine J. Alcock
Natalia Arias-Trejo
Gisa Aschersleben
Dare Baldwin
Stéphanie Barbu
Elika Bergelson
Christina Bergmann
Alexis K. Black
Ryan Blything
Maximilian P. Böhland
Petra Bolitho
Arielle Borovsky
Shannon M. Brady
Bettina Braun
Anna Brown
Krista Byers-Heinlein
Linda E. Campbell
Cara Cashon
Mihye Choi
Joan Christodoulou
Laura K. Cirelli
Stefania Conte
Sara Cordes
Christopher M. M. Cox
Alejandrina Cristia
Rhodri Cusack
Catherine Davies
Maartje de Klerk
Claire Delle Luche
Laura de Ruiter
Dhanya Dinakar
Kate C. Dixon
Virginie Durier
Samantha Durrant
Christopher Fennell
Brock Ferguson
Alissa Ferry
Paula Fikkert
Teresa Flanagan
Caroline Floccia
Megan Foley
Tom Fritzsche
Rebecca L. A. Frost
Anja Gampe
Judit Gervain
Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez
Anna Gupta
Laura E. Hahn
J. Kiley Hamlin
Erin E. Hannon
Naomi Havron
Jessica F. Hay
Mikołaj Hernik
Barbara Höhle
Derek M. Houston
Lauren H. Howard
Mitsuhiko Ishikawa
Shoji Itakura
Iain Jackson
Krisztina V. Jakobsen
Marianna Jarto
Scott P. Johnson
Caroline Junge
Didar Karadag
Natalia Kartushina
Danielle J. Kellier
Tamar Keren-Portnoy
Kelsey Klassen
Melissa Kline Struhl
Eon-Suk Ko
Jonathan F. Kominsky
Jessica E. Kosie
Haley E. Kragness
Andrea A.R. Krieger
Florian Krieger
Jill Lany
Roberto J. Lazo
Michelle Lee
Chloé Leservoisier
Claartje Levelt
Casey Lew-Williams
Matthias Lippold
Ulf Liszkowski
Liquan Liu
Steven G. Luke
Rebecca A. Lundwall
Viola Macchi Cassia
Nivedita Mani
Caterina Marino
Alia Martin
Meghan Mastroberardino
Victoria Mateu
Julien Mayor
Katharina Menn
Christine Michel
Yusuke Moriguchi
Benjamin Morris
Karli M. Nave
Thierry Nazzi
Claire Noble
Miriam A. Novack
Nonah M. Olesen
Adriel John Orena
Mitsuhiko Ota
Robin Panneton
Sara Parvanezadeh Esfahani
Markus Paulus
Carolina Pletti
Linda Polka
Christine E. Potter
Hugh Rabagliati
Shruthilaya Ramachandran
Jennifer L. Rennels
Greg D. Reynolds
Kelly C. Roth
Charlotte Rothwell
Doroteja Rubez
Yana Ryjova
Jenny R. Saffran
Ayumi Sato
Sophie Savelkouls
Adena Schachner
Graham Schafer
Melanie S. Schreiner
Amanda Seidl
Mohinish Shukla
Elizabeth A. Simpson
Leher Singh
Barbora Skarabela
Gaye Soley
Megha Sundara
Anna Theakston
Abbie Thompson
Laurel J. Trainor
Sandra E. Trehub
Anna S. Trøan
Angeline Sin Mei Tsui
Katherine E. Twomey
Katie Von Holzen
Yuanyuan Wang
Sandra Waxman
Janet F. Werker
Stephanie Wermelinger
Alix Woolard
Daniel Yurovsky
Katharina Zahner-Ritter
Martin Zettersten
Melanie Soderstrom