What Can We Perceive in Infant Vocalization?

Abstract

Infant language development includes a complex social dynamic between adults and infants. Infant vocalization is a well-studied area of development, however adult perception of infant vocalization is less well-understood. The effectiveness of identifications made by adults may impact the social feedback loops that drive development. We collected data from a final sample of 460 undergraduate students who listened to brief (100-500 ms) audio clips of infant vocalization. Participants were asked to identify infants in the audio clips as male/female, English/non-English, and their approximate age. Participants were unable to determine the sex of the infant better than chance but showed better than chance performance for language and age, albeit with low accuracy. Exploratory follow-up analyses did not reveal an effect of caregiving experience, childcare experience, or participant gender on a participants’ ability to correctly identify the infant’s age, sex, or language. These findings suggest that adult caregivers, regardless of experience, are able to perceive elements of infant vocalizations that may influence responsiveness to infant vocal development. However, performance is far from perfect.