Research in our lab is approved by the Research Ethics Board of the University of Manitoba. We are grateful for funding from SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council), and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Council), as well as internal funding from the University of Manitoba.
Preference Studies
Preference for Infant-directed Speech: How are infants’ preferences for the special properties of child-directed speech different across cultures and languages? (6 – 9 month olds)
We speak very differently to babies than we do to other adults — but this style of speaking varies across cultures and languages. In collaboration with dozens of laboratories around the world, we are examining how infants preference for this style of speech varies in different circumstances, languages and infant age.
Do babies demonstrate social preferences? (5.5 – 10.5 month olds)
The aim of this study is to explore if infants prefer those who are nice or mean to a third-party character. While studies have been conducted on infant social preferences in this context before, the results have not been consistently replicated. This study will add to existing literature and help us determine if infants have social preferences related to morality that they use when making decisions.
Can babies extract patterns from speech? (5 – 12 month olds)
The aim of this study is to explore whether infants can extract patterns from syllable sequences; can babies tell the difference between familiar and new syllable patterns? Infants hear syllable sequences with a particular pattern like ABB or ABA and then are tested on new syllables sequences that follow the same or a different pattern. This is a large-scale study with labs all over the world participating.
How reliable are our measures of infant preference? (5 – 12 month olds)
Most of our studies rely on measuring infant preferences across a group of babies. Because there are a lot of factors that influence what sounds a baby might want to listen to on a given day, we usually say that these findings are only meaningful across a large group of babies, and not for an individual baby. More recently, researchers have been trying to use individual babies’ preferences to predict their later language development, like how quickly they learn new words. As an optional “add-on” study we will be bringing babies back to the lab to test them a second time, to see how similar their preferences are from one day to another.
Recording Studies and the ACLEW Project
The ACLEW Project: What are the language environments of children around the world? (0-24 month olds)
ACLEW is a project bringing together investigators from North America, South America and Europe to investigate the everyday language experiences of children in different communities. To date, we have recordings in North American and UK English, Spanish-English bilingual, Argentinian Spanish, Tseltan Mayan, and Yélî Dnye. Our work on this project with our team of research assistants has so far involved the development of a new transcription system and implementing that system across the recordings from these different language communities. We are also collaborating with “machine learning” experts to develop tools to automate our analyses over the many thousands of hours of audio recording!
Infant-directed speech in Farsi
This study examines the linguistic environment of Farsi-learning infants in Iran. It explores the melody and rhythm of caregivers’ speech in Iran, as well as the amount of speech Persian infants hear early in life.