Statistical regularities in linguistic input, such as transitional probability and phonotactic probability, have been shown to promote speech segmentation. It remains unclear, however, whether or how the combination of transitional probabilities and subtle phonotactic probabilities influence segmentation. The present study provides a fine-grained investigation of the effects of such combined statistics. Adults (N = 81) were tested in one of two conditions. In the Anchor condition, they heard a continuous stream of words with small differences in phonotactic probabilities. In the Uniform condition, all words had comparable phonotactic probabilities. In both conditions, transitional probability was stronger in words than part-words. Only participants from the Anchor condition preferred words at test, indicating that the combination of transitional probabilities and subtle phonotactic probabilities may facilitate speech segmentation. We discuss the methodological implications of our findings which demonstrate that even small phonotactic variations should be accounted for when investigating statistical speech segmentation.

Yarkoni's analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation.

Bilingualism has been hypothesized to shape cognitive abilities across the lifespan. Here, we examined the replicability of a seminal study that showed monolingual–bilingual differences in infancy (Kovács & Mehler, 2009a) by collecting new data from 7-month-olds and 20-month-olds and reanalyzing three open datasets from 7- to 9-month-olds (D’Souza et al., 2020; Kalashnikova et al., 2020, 2021). Infants from all studies (N = 222) were tested in an anticipatory eye-tracking paradigm, where they learned to use a cue to anticipate a reward presented on one side of a screen during Training, and the opposite side at Test. To correctly anticipate the reward at Test, infants had to update their previously learned behavior. Across four out of five studies, a fine-grained analysis of infants’ anticipations showed that bilinguals were better able to update the previously learned response at Test, which could be related to bilinguals’ weaker initial learning during Training. However, in one study of 7-month-olds, we observed the opposite pattern: bilinguals performed better during Training, and monolinguals performed better at Test. These results show that bilingualism affects how infants process information during learning. We also highlight the potential of open science to advance our understanding of language development.

Bilingualism has been hypothesized to shape domain-general cognitive abilities across the lifespan, in what some have called the “bilingual advantage”. Here, we examined the replicability of a seminal study that showed monolingual–bilingual differences in infancy (Kovács & Mehler, 2009a) by collecting new data from 7-month-olds and 20-month-olds and reanalyzing three open datasets from 7–9 month-olds (D’Souza et al., 2020, Experiment 1; Kalashikova et al., 2020, Visual and Auditory conditions). All infants (total N = 181) were tested in an anticipatory eye movement paradigm, where they learned to use a visual and/or auditory cue to anticipate a visual reward presented consistently on one side of a screen during training, and on the opposite side of the screen at test. To correctly anticipate the reward at test, infants had to update their previously learned behavior. Across 3 out of 4 studies, results from a new analytic approach showed that 7–9 month-old bilinguals were better able to update the previously-learned response at test (a “bilingual advantage”), which could be related to bilinguals’ weaker initial learning of the contingency during the learning phase (a “monolingual advantage”). At 20 months, bilinguals performed better at test, though groups showed similar performance during the learning phase. Overall, these results show that bilingualism affects how infants process both new and updated information during learning.

Yarkoni’s analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation.

The form of a verbal response allows for reinforcement mediation and language transmission across cultures. Reinforcement, in turn, plays a decisive role in learning verbal forms. The present work addresses methodological limitations of previous studies, providing further evidence of the role of automatic reinforcement in achieving parity with vocal models. In the first experiment, 4 preschool-age children heard the experimenter describe drawings of different actions in the passive voice. Participants were then asked to describe analogous drawings. They used the passive voice after the model was presented and continued to do so even when preferred explicit consequences followed diverging descriptions (i.e., in the active voice). To further investigate the effects of explicit reinforcement and of the passive-voice model, in Experiment 2, we altered the number of trials with explicit reinforcement and with the model. Three of four participants used the passive voice to describe the drawings, despite greater exposure to explicit consequences following descriptions diverging from the model. Keywords Automatic reinforcement . Intraverbal frames . Verbal behavior . Verbal form Listeners are often unaware of the controlling variables of speakers' behaviors. A scream for help can be under the control of very different stimuli, from a painful wound, to a robbery. Nonetheless, listeners can infer the controlling variables from the form of the response and mediate reinforcement (e.g., by imagining possible explanations and calling 911). The set of conventional forms that comprise the shared and shaped verbal practices of a community constitutes language (Vargas, 2013). Form allows for reinforcement mediation in a verbal community and the transmission of language across cultures (Palmer, 2007).

Culture is a key determinant of children’s development both in its own right and for understanding the generalizability of developmental phenomena. Studying the role of culture in development requires information about participants’ demographic backgrounds. However, both reporting and treatment of demographic data are limited and inconsistent in child development research. A barrier to reporting demographic data in a consistent fashion is that no standardized tool currently exists to collect these data. Variation in cultural expectations, family structures, and life circumstances across communities make the creation of a unifying instrument challenging. Here, we present a framework to standardize demographic reporting for early child development (birth to 3 years of age), focusing on six sociodemographic construct categories: biological information, gestational status, health status, community of descent, caregiving environment, and socioeconomic status. For each, we discuss potential measurement items and provide guidance for their use and adaptation to different contexts. These items are stored in a repository of context-adapted questionnaires that provide a consistent approach to obtaining and reporting demographic information so that these data can be archived and shared in a more standardized format. The public significance of this work is to facilitate diversification of participants within developmental psychology by providing a framework for capturing demographic diversity.

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