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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.

Measuring eye movements remotely via the participant’s webcam promises to be an attractive methodological addition to in-person eye-tracking in the lab. However, there is a lack of systematic research comparing remote web-based eye-tracking with in-lab eye-tracking in young children. We report a multi-lab study that compared these two measures in an anticipatory looking task with toddlers using WebGazer.js and jsPsych. Results of our remotely tested sample of 18-27-month-old toddlers (N = 125) revealed that web-based eye-tracking successfully captured goal-based action predictions, although the proportion of the goal-directed anticipatory looking was lower compared to the in-lab sample (N = 70). As expected, attrition rate was substantially higher in the web-based (42%) than the in-lab sample (10%). Excluding trials based on visual inspection of the match of time-locked gaze coordinates and the participant’s webcam video overlayed on the stimuli was an important preprocessing step to reduce noise in the data. We discuss the use of this remote web-based method in comparison with other current methodological innovations. Our study demonstrates that remote web-based eye-tracking can be a useful tool for testing toddlers, facilitating recruitment of larger and more diverse samples; a caveat to consider is the larger drop-out rate.

A survey of diversity in leading language acquisition journals revealed that only 2% of the 7,000+ languages of the world are represented. With a long-term aim of empowering researchers everywhere to contribute to this literature, we organized the First Truly Global /L+/ International Summer/Winter School on Language Acquisition (/L+/). /L+/ was a free 5-day virtual school that facilitated the interchange of expertise among early career researchers about all levels of language development in monolingual and multilingual contexts. Our paper provides an overview of organizing /L+/, the measures we took to ensure inclusivity, and qualitative and quantitative analyses of attendees' experiences. We asked for volunteers through the LangVIEW consortium resulting in a diverse organization team from under-represented areas: Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. To promote inclusivity, we (1) employed asynchronous and synchronous elements across three time zones; (2) provided closed captions for lectures and international sign interpretation for live sessions; (3) issued a code of conduct. For each time zone, an algorithm selected 120 participants (80% from traditionally under-represented regions) and 61 countries were represented. A post-school questionnaire revealed that 99% of attendees enjoyed taking part in /L+/. However, qualitative comments suggested that there were issues in duration, contents and scheduling. Although much remains to be done to promote inclusivity in linguistic research, we hope our school will contribute to empowering researchers to investigate and publish on language acquisition in their home languages.

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.

Language learners track conditional probabilities to find words in continuous speech and to map words and objects across ambiguous contexts. It remains unclear, however, whether learners can leverage the structure of the linguistic input to do both tasks at the same time and how that would impact learning. To explore these questions, we combined speech segmentation and cross-situational word learning into a single task. Participants had to track speech statistics (transitional and phonotactic probabilities) to segment words and, at the same time, track co-occurrences between these newly segmented words and objects across presentations to overcome ambiguity and learn word-object pairings. In Experiment 1, when adults (N = 60) simultaneously segmented continuous speech and mapped the newly segmented words to objects, they demonstrated better performance than when either task was performed alone. However, when the speech stream had conflicting information between transitional and phonotactic statistics, participants were still able to correctly map words to objects, but surprisingly, were at chance level on speech segmentation. In Experiment 2, we used a more sensitive speech segmentation measure to find that adults (N = 35), exposed to the same conflicting speech stream, correctly identified non-words as such, but were still unable to consistently discriminate between words and part-words. Again, mapping was above chance. Our study suggests that learners can track multiple sources of statistical information to find and map words to objects in complex environments. It also prompts critical questions on how to effectively measure the knowledge that may arise from these learning experiences.

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 in 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 ofour 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 is hard to define, measure, and study. Sparked by the “replication crisis” in the social sciences, a recent discussion on the advantages of open science is gaining momentum. Here, we join this debate to argue that bilingualism research would greatly benefit from embracing open science. We do so in a unique way, by presenting six fictional stories that illustrate how open science practices – sharing preprints, materials, code, and data; pre-registering studies; and joining large-scale collaborations – can strengthen bilingualism research and further improve its quality.

Infants can learn words in their daily interactions early in life, and many studies have demonstrated that they can also learn words from brief in-lab exposures. While most studies have included monolingual infants, less is known about bilingual infants’ word learning and the role that language familiarity plays in this ability. In this study we examined word learning in a large sample (up to N = 155) of bilingual and monolingual 14-month-olds using a preferential looking paradigm. To support word learning, novel words were presented within sentence frames in one language (single-language condition) or two languages (dual-language condition). We predicted that infants would exhibit greater word–object learning when they were more familiar with the language of the sentence frame. Using both traditional (t-tests) and updated (linear mixed-effects models) analyses, we found no evidence for successful word learning, nor an effect of familiarity. Our results suggest that word learning in experimental settings can be challenging for 14-month-olds, even when sentence frames are provided. We discuss these results in relation to prior work and suggest how open science practices can contribute to more reliable findings about early word learning.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Learning an oral language presents several challenges, two of which are: extracting words from continuous speech and mapping them to referents. Statistical cues (e.g., prosody, phonotactical probability) are an important source of information to overcome such challenges. Evidence suggests that the higher or lower probability of a syllable being followed by another one (transitional probability) can be indicative of word boundaries in continuous speech. Additionally, segmentation and mapping processes can occur sequentially and simultaneously as a result of tracking the co-occurrence between words and its referents. Nonetheless, there is still a limited number of studies investigating simultaneous processes of word segmentation based on transitional probability and mapping based on cooccurrences across ambiguous trials (when more than one word and one referent is presented). The present investigation aims to answer the following question: can words be simultaneously segmented from continuous speech and mapped to referents across ambiguous trials? Three studies were conducted to investigate this question. The first study, with nine experiments, investigated whether pseudowords (previously selected) could be extracted from continuous speech based on their transitional probability. Brazilian-Portuguese and English adult speakers participated. Results indicated that words can be segmented, but only when other statistical cues, such as the phonotactical probabilities, are controlled. The second study, with two experiments, investigated whether segmented words from the languages used in the first study could be mapped to abstract pictures during cross-situational word learning tasks. Brazilian-Portuguese adult speakers participated. Results suggest that words can be mapped and that performance improves when the task is repeated. Finally, the third study, with two experiments, investigated whether extraction and mapping over ambiguous trials can occur in parallel. Brazilian-Portuguese and English adult speakers participated. Results suggest that these processes can occur together, at the same time, and that accuracy rates in the parallel task are higher than accuracy rates in individual tasks (Studies 1 and 2). By combining transitional probability and the cooccurrence of stimuli across ambiguous trials, the present investigation helps to advance the current understanding of the role played by linguistic regularities in language learning. Additionally, this work inaugurated this line of investigation in Brazil, which can motivate future investigations of the topic. A aprendizagem de uma língua oral envolve vários desafios, entre eles: extrair palavras da fala contínua e mapeá-las a seus referentes. Uma fonte de informação importante para quem aprende uma língua são as regularidades presentes na própria língua oral (e.g., prosódia, probabilidade fonotática, probabilidade transicional). Há evidências de que a maior ou menor probabilidade de uma sílaba ser seguida por outra sílaba (probabilidade transicional) pode informar sobre os limites das palavras de uma fala contínua. Além disso, os processos de extração de palavras e mapeamento das mesmas aos seus referentes podem ocorrer sequencialmente ou simultaneamente, por meio do rastreamento da coocorrência entre as palavras e referentes. No entanto, há um número ainda restrito de estudos investigando processos simultâneos de extração de palavras com base na probabilidade transicional e o mapeamento com base em coocorrências ao longo de tentativas ambíguas (nas quais mais de uma palavra e mais de um referente são apresentados). A presente investigação é guiada pela pergunta: palavras são extraídas de falas contínuas e mapeadas a estímulos visuais simultaneamente ao longo de tentativas ambíguas? Uma sequência de três estudos foi desenvolvida para investigar essa questão. O primeiro estudo, com nove experimentos, investigou se pseudopalavras (previamente selecionadas) podiam ser extraídas de falas contínuas com base na probabilidade transicional de suas sílabas. Participaram adultos falantes do português brasileiro e do inglês norte-americano. Os resultados indicaram que as palavras podem ser extraídas com base na probabilidade transicional, porém outras dicas estatísticas, como a probabilidade fonotática das palavras, devem ser controladas. O segundo estudo, com dois experimentos, investigou se as palavras das línguas utilizadas no primeiro estudo, já extraídas, seriam mapeadas a figuras abstratas ao longo de tentativas ambíguas. Participaram adultos falantes do português brasileiro. Os resultados sugerem que as palavras podem ser mapeadas e que o mapeamento melhora quando há repetições da tarefa. Por fim, o terceiro estudo, com dois experimentos, investigou se os processos de extração e mapeamento ao longo de tentativas ambíguas podem ocorrer em paralelo. Participaram adultos falantes do português brasileiro e do inglês norte-americano. Os resultados indicam que tais processos podem ocorrer em paralelo e que a acurácia na tarefa em paralelo é superior à acurácia nas tarefas separadas (Estudo 1 e 2). Ao combinar a probabilidade transicional e a coocorrência de estímulos ao longo de tentativas ambíguas, a presente investigação contribui para o avanço do conhecimento atual sobre o papel das regularidades linguísticas na aprendizagem de linguagem. Ao mesmo tempo, o trabalho inaugurou essa linha de investigação em âmbito nacional, podendo motivar futuras investigações sobre o assunto. 2015/26389-7 2018/04226-7

A motivação está presente em tudo o que fazemos. Com esse pressuposto, o novo livro de Dan Ariely apresenta como podemos destruir a motivação, sentir prazer em fazer- mos algo nós mesmos, como diferentes tipos de recompensas alteram a motivação, e como a motivação se estende para além da existência individual. O livro contém vários exemplos coti- dianos e os argumentos podem ser compreendidos de maneira intuitiva, porém, a fundamen- tação empírica escassa limita a generalidade e con abilidade dos argumentos apresentados.

O ensino e manutenção de repertórios comportamentais dependem, em grande parte, de suas consequências. Identificar consequências que aumentam a probabilidade da ocorrência de comportamentos de interesse é fundamental para intervenções comportamentais. A Avaliação de Itens de Preferência (AIP) busca identificar itens preferidos que podem ser utilizados como consequências. No presente artigo são descritos oito métodos de AIP, dois indiretos – entrevista com pais e cuidadores e observações informais – e seis métodos diretos, que envolvem a apresentação de estímulo único, escolha pareada, estímulos múltiplos com e sem reposição e operante livre em ambiente natural e restrito. Orientações sobre os pré-requisitos, procedimento de avaliação, registro e a análise de resultados, vantagens e desvantagens são discutidos para cada um dos métodos.

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) is the only journal focused on theoretical and empirical research in verbal behavior. An assessment of authorship trends can provide a critical perspective on practices in verbal behavior analysis (e.g., participation by non-US institutions, contributions by female authors). The present study examines authorship trends in all articles published in TAVB since its inception (between 1982 and 2016). All authors and their affiliations were listed and the first authors denoted as such. Authors were characterized as follows: prolificacy, new vs. frequent contributor status, number of co-authors, editor status, fellow status in a professional organization, and gender. Institutional affiliations were characterized as follows: academic vs. nonacademic institutions, prolificacy, and location (country). The review included 383 articles by 487 authors from 200 institutions. Our findings revealed areas in which TAVB is reaching maturity (e.g., author gender) and areas in which further action by contributors and editors is needed (e.g., international participation).

This chapter highlights a language learning challenge faced by infants: discovering the sounds in language, finding words in continuous speech, mapping words to meaning, and learning rudimentary grammar. It provides an overview of the kind of statistical regularities available in the input and review a representative sampling of the evidence that suggests that infants can track those statistics. The chapter discusses what is known about how individual differences in statistical learning are related to language development in both typical and atypical infant and child populations. It explores the reader a flavor of the ways that statistical learning in infancy is studied in the lab and to highlight evidence to suggest that it may account for some meaningful individual differences in language acquisition. As infants gain experience with the prosodic and phonotactic patterns of words in their native language, they may come to rely less on sequential statistics to find words in speech, in favor of language-specific cues.

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) is the only journal focused on theoretical and empirical research in verbal behavior. An assessment of authorship trends can provide a critical perspective on practices in verbal behavior analysis (e.g., participation by non-US institutions, contributions by female authors). The present study examines authorship trends in all articles published in TAVB since its inception (between 1982 and 2016). All authors and their affiliations were listed and the first authors denoted as such. Authors were characterized as follows: prolificacy, new vs. frequent contributor status, number of co-authors, editor status, fellow status in a professional organization, and gender. Institutional affiliations were characterized as follows: academic vs. nonacademic institutions, prolificacy, and location (country). The review included 383 articles by 487 authors from 200 institutions. Our findings revealed areas in which TAVB is reaching maturity (e.g., author gender) and areas in which further action by contributors and editors is needed (e.g., international participation).

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-021-01191-0

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.

Recent studies have stressed the importance of disseminating behavior analysis to a more diverse audience and have provided ways to do so effectively. General science publications offer an attractive venue for communicating with a scientifically educated public. The present study examines behavior analysis research published in Science Today and Research Fapesp, monthly general science publications published by the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science and Sao Paulo Research Foundation, respectively. Behavior analytic terms were searched in issues published from 2003 to 2014, along with psychoanalytic terms as a comparative measure. Only 13 behavior analysis articles were found, while psychoanalytic articles totaled 150. Six of the behavior analysis articles misconstrue fundamental concepts of behavior analysis. The study recommends that behavior analysis researchers extend the dissemination of their findings outside the box.

Behavior analysts have investigated sustainable practices since the 1970s. Nonetheless, such researches are limited in coverage of the research/intervention targets, long-term maintenance of pro-environmental behavior, and its dissemination to a broad public. The present research aimed to identify the main intervention/analysis targets and the main contribution of articles published between 2005 and 2016 in the journal Behavior and Social Issues. The articles were identified by the descriptors: sustainability, sustainable, global warming, climate change, pro-environmental behavior, environmental protection, environmental conservation, recycling, and energy use. Of the 13 articles analyzed, nine investigated, theoretically, new units of analysis/intervention, the relation between psychological processes and sustainability, and the effects of immediate and delayed consequences on sustainable choices. Four articles investigated the effects of antecedents, consequents, and rules on recycling, on energy consumption, on the transmission of sustainable practices in a laboratory microsociety, and on the adaptation of a commercial building. The present review provides an overview of the area and has the potential to guide researchers, students, and interested audiences in the search for relevant variables and strategies to promote pro-environmental practices.Keywords: sustainability, pro-environmental behavior, behavior analysis, Analistas do comportamento têm investigado práticas sustentáveis desde a década de 1970. Não obstante, as pesquisas da área são limitadas em relação à abrangência dos alvos de pesquisa/intervenção, à manutenção a longo prazo de comportamentos pró-ambientais, e à sua disseminação para um público amplo. A presente pesquisa buscou identificar os principais alvos de intervenção/análise e a principal contribuição dos artigos publicados entre 2005 e 2016 no periódico Behavior and Social Issues. Os artigos foram identificados por meio dos descritores: sustentabilidade, sustentável, aquecimento global, mudança climática, comportamento pró-ambiental, proteção ambiental, conservação ambiental, reciclagem, e uso de energia. Dos 13 artigos analisados, nove investigaram, teoricamente, novas unidades de análise/intervenção, a relação entre processos psicológicos e sustentabilidade, e os efeitos de consequências imediatas e atrasadas em escolhas sustentáveis. Quatro artigos investigaram empiricamente o efeito de variáveis antecedentes, consequentes, e regras no aumento da reciclagem, na redução do consumo de energia, na transmissão de práticas sustentáveis em uma micro sociedade laboratorial, e na adaptação de um estabelecimento comercial. A presente revisão fornece um panorama da área e tem o potencial de guiar pesquisadores, estudantes, e audiências interessadas na busca por variáveis e estratégias relevantes para a promoção de práticas pró-ambientais.Palavras-chave: sustentabilidade, comportamento pró-ambiental, análise do comportamento

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) The development and maintenance of vocal verbal repertories that follow structural regularities are processes in need for investigation under the selection by consequences paradigm. The present study investigates the effects of presenting vocal models in passive voice and explicit consequences, of high and medium preference, contingent to descriptions in active voice on the verbal voice of descriptions of Brazilian young children, 4 years old on average. Three experiments were performed. In the first, four children participated. The experimental procedure was composed by five conditions. In the first one, 10 drawings, with two animals interacting, were presented and its descriptions asked. In the second, experimenter and participant alternated in describing 20 drawings, the experimenter always described in passive voice. The third condition was similar to the second, except that descriptions in active voice (divergent) were followed by preferred consequences. The fourth condition was similar to the first one. The fifth condition was similar to the fourth, but it was conducted by an unknown experimenter. All participants described in passive voice after being exposed to the model and continued doing so even when preferred consequences followed descriptions in active voice. But the experimental design may have created a sequence effect between the second and the third conditions. Such limitation was followed in a second experiment. Other four young children participated, 4 years old on average. The procedure was similar to the first experiment, but, the model in passive voice during the second condition was replaced by the presentation of preferred explicit consequences contingent to active voice descriptions. All participants described in passive voice after being exposed to the model, except one. In order to refine the investigation, a third experiment was conducted. Other four young children mean of 4 years old, with different degrees of model following participated. The procedure was identical to the second experiment, but a pre-experimental condition was added in order to measure the participants’ sensibility to the model. Nevertheless, all participants described in passive voice after being exposed to the model in the third experimental condition. The findings point to the importance of investigations on non-arranged contingencies of reinforcement in the development and maintenance of verbal vocal repertoires that follow structural regularities. O desenvolvimento e manutenção de repertórios verbais vocais que seguem regularidades estruturais são processos pouco investigados sob o paradigma da seleção pelas consequências. O presente estudo investiga os efeitos da apresentação de modelos vocais em voz passiva e de consequências explícitas, de alta e média preferência, contingentes às descrições em voz ativa, sobre a voz verbal das descrições de crianças pequenas, idade média de 4 anos, brasileiras. Três experimentos foram realizados. No primeiro, participaram quatro crianças. O procedimento experimental foi composto por cinco condições. Na primeira condição, 10 desenhos, com dois animais interagindo, foram apresentados e suas descrições solicitadas. Na segunda, experimentador e participante descreveram 20 desenhos alternadamente, sendo as descrições do experimentador sempre em voz passiva. A terceira condição foi semelhante à anterior, porém descrições em voz ativa (divergentes) foram seguidas de consequências preferidas. A quarta condição foi semelhante a primeira. A quinta foi semelhante à quarta, porém foi conduzida por um experimentador desconhecido. Todos os participantes passaram a descrever as figuras em voz passiva após a apresentação do modelo e continuaram a fazê-lo mesmo com apresentação de atividades preferidas contingentes às descrições em voz ativa. Porém, o delineamento empregado pode ter gerado um efeito de sequência entre a segunda e terceira condição. Tal limitação foi investigada no Experimento 2. Participaram outras quatro crianças pequenas, com idades de 4 anos em média. O procedimento foi semelhante ao do primeiro experimento, porém, o modelo em voz passiva durante a segunda condição experimental foi substituído pela apresentação de consequências explícitas preferidas contingentes a descrições em voz ativa. Todos os participantes descreveram os desenhos em voz passiva após serem expostos ao modelo, exceto por um. Buscando refinar a investigação, um terceiro experimento foi realizado. Participaram outras quatro crianças pequenas, média de 4 anos de idade, com diferentes graus de seguimento do modelo. O procedimento foi idêntico ao do segundo experimento, porém, uma tarefa pré-experimental foi adicionada, ela mediu a sensibilidade ao modelo. Não obstante, todos os participantes passaram a falar em voz passiva após serem expostos ao modelo na terceira condição experimental. Os achados apontam para a importância de investigações sobre contingências de reforçamento não arranjadas no desenvolvimento e manutenção de repertórios verbais vocais que seguem regularidades estruturais.