Listening to stories in new languages

For 5- to 14-month olds who mostly hear English and have NOT heard French or Mandarin Chinese

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Participate Now!” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. During the study, your baby will listen to somebody speaking French and Mandarin Chinese. A moving image will be on one side of the screen when your baby hears French, and on the other side of the screen when your baby hears Mandarin. We will record your baby’s eye movements to see which side of the screen they look at when each language is playing. Important note: Because we are looking at eye movements, we ask that you join the zoom meeting from a laptop or desktop computer (not mobile or tablet). We might also ask you to turn lights on or off during the session so that we can better see your baby’s eyes.

The goal of this study is to figure out whether babies can learn to tell the difference between two languages they don't know when the person using those languages is switching between them. We know that babies of this age can distinguish between French and Mandarin Chinese even if they don't already know the languages, but we don't know how much of each language they need to hear at a time in order to figure that out. This project will help us to learn more about how babies growing up in bilingual homes are able to learn both of their languages.

30 minutes

Families will receive a $5 USD credit on Tango (tangocard.com) for participating, which is redeemable for a gift card from your choice of a variety of major retailers. To be eligible for compensation, your child must be in the age range for this study, you need to submit a valid consent statement, and we need to see that the child who is participating is with you. You will still receive compensation even if you do not finish the whole study or if we are unable to use your child's data. You will receive your Tango credit via email within 10 days of participation.