Infant response to language as a function of language input to infant

Radtke, V. . , Schreiner, M. , Behne, T. & Mani, N. .

University of Göttingen, Germany

Several studies suggest a preference for infant-directed over adult-directed speech (hereafter, IDS and ADS) (e.g. Segal & Newman, 2015). However, the reason why infants find it easier to learn from IDS compared to ADS is still under discussion (Golinkoff et al, 2015). In an ongoing study (n= 42 age: 6.2 &13.1 months), we investigate children's preference of IDS compared to ADS, depending on the input they receive from their mother. First, mothers are recorded, while telling a story in ADS and later telling the same story to their own child in IDS. Second, a preferential-listening task records the looking times of the child while listening to IDS and ADS. Third, in an eye-tracking experiment, an actor turns towards one of two objects after IDS vs ADS stimulus presentation, and infants? gaze-following is recorded (cf., Senju & Csibra, 2008).
Preliminary results show developmental differences: 13 month old infants show gaze following after ADS stimulus presentation, 6 month old infants don?t. Nevertheless, correlation of the data show that 6 month old infants follow gaze more after ADS presentation if they don?t show a preference to listen to IDS compared to ADS. Further correlations including the speech input are going to be analyzed.