Infants prefer tunes previously introduced by speakers of their native language

Sebastián Gallés, Núria; Soley, Gaye

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12408

Infants prefer tunes previously introduced by speakers of their native language

Citation

Soley G, Sebastián-Gallés N. Infants prefer tunes previously introduced by speakers of their native language. Child Dev. 2015;86(6):1685-1692. DOI 10.1111/cdev.12408.

Abstract

Infants show attentional biases for certain individuals over others based on various cues. However, the role of these biases in shaping infants' preferences and learning is not clear. This study asked whether infants' preference for native speakers (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007) would modulate their preferences for tunes. After getting equal exposure to two different tunes introduced by two speakers, 7-month-olds (N = 32) listened longer to the tune that was introduced by a native speaker compared to the tune that was introduced by a foreign speaker. This suggests that the social-emotional context in which exposure to stimuli occurs influences auditory preferences, and that the early emerging attentional biases might have important ramifications regarding social learning in early infancy.