Exploring variation in infants' preference for Infant-directed speech: Evidence from a multi-site study in Africa
Document Type
Article
Department
Institute for Human Development
Abstract
Infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). This preference has been linkedto infants’ language processing and word learning in experimental settings, and also correlates with later language outcomes.Recently, the cross-cultural consistency of infants’ IDS preference has been confirmed by large-scale, multisite replication studies,but conclusions from these studies were primarily based on participants from North America and Europe. The current studyaddressed this sampling bias via a large-scale, multisite study of infants (3–15 months) across communities in Africa. Weinvestigated whether participants showed a preference for IDS over ADS, and if so, whether the magnitude of their preferencediffers from effects documented in other populations of infants. Across six sites (total N = 200), we observed a preference for IDSover ADS ( ̂ 𝛽 IDS vs. ADS = 0.06), suggesting that infants look on average 6% longer on the IDS trials than the ADS trials. There was nosignificant difference between African infants in this study and a method-matched subsample of infants from prior studies of IDSpreference. This study provides new evidence on the generalizability of IDS preference and looking-time methods more broadly,while also highlighting some of the challenges of global big team science.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Developmental Science
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.70242
Recommended Citation
Mei Tsui, A.,
Carstensen, A.,
Kachergis, G.,
Cao, A.,
Abubakar, A.,
Asnake, M.,
Barry, O.,
Basnight-Brown, D.,
Bentu, D.,
Bergmann, C.
(2026). Exploring variation in infants' preference for Infant-directed speech: Evidence from a multi-site study in Africa. Developmental Science, 29(5), 1-17.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_ihd/264