Evidence for Infant-directed Speech Preference Is Consistent Across Large-scale, Multi-site Replication and Meta-analysis

Martin Zettersten*, Christopher Cox, Christina Bergmann, Angeline Sin Mei Tsui, Melanie Soderstrom, Julien Mayor, Rebecca A Lundwall, Molly Lewis, Jessica E Kosie, Natalia Kartushina, Riccardo Fusaroli, Michael C Frank, Krista Byers-Heinlein, Alexis K Black, Maya B Mathur

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that infants prefer infant-directed speech (IDS) to adult-directed speech (ADS). The strongest evidence for this claim has come from two large-scale investigations: i) a community-augmented meta-analysis of published behavioral studies and ii) a large-scale multi-lab replication study. In this paper, we aim to improve our understanding of the IDS preference and its boundary conditions by combining and comparing these two data sources across key population and design characteristics of the underlying studies. Our analyses reveal that both the meta-analysis and multi-lab replication show moderate effect sizes ( d ≈ 0.35 for each estimate) and that both of these effects persist when relevant study-level moderators are added to the models (i.e., experimental methods, infant ages, and native languages). However, while the overall effect size estimates were similar, the two sources diverged in the effects of key moderators: both infant age and experimental method predicted IDS preference in the multi-lab replication study, but showed no effect in the meta-analysis. These results demonstrate that the IDS preference generalizes across a variety of experimental conditions and sampling characteristics, while simultaneously identifying key differences in the empirical picture offered by each source individually and pinpointing areas where substantial uncertainty remains about the influence of theoretically central moderators on IDS preference. Overall, our results show how meta-analyses and multi-lab replications can be used in tandem to understand the robustness and generalizability of developmental phenomena.

Original languageEnglish
JournalOpen Mind
Volume8
Pages (from-to)439-461
Number of pages23
ISSN2470-2986
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Apr 2024

Keywords

  • infant-directed speech
  • looking time preference
  • mega-analysis
  • meta-analysis
  • multi-lab replication

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