What Can We Perceive In Infant Vocalization?

Abstract

Infant vocalization is a well-studied area of development, however, there is a noticeable gap in the literature regarding adult identification of infant vocalization. Authors of the present study collected data from 626 undergraduate students who listened to 100-500 ms audio clips of infant vocalization. Researchers asked participants to identify infants in the audio clips as male/female, English/non-English, and 0-7 months/8-18 months/19-36 months of age. Participants were unable to determine the sex of the infant better than chance but were able to determine the infant’s language and age significantly better than chance, t (463)= 4.4618, p < .001, and t (463) = 17.714, p < .001, respectively. 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 or language. This research has implications for determining what is and is not perceivable in infant vocalizations. This is an underrepresented topic in infant research as most work has demonstrated what infants can perceive; not what caregivers can. This is an important contribution because infant language development has been demonstrated to include a complex social dynamic between adults and infants.