Four-month-old infants prefer to listen to motherese. Fernald, A. Infant Behavior and Development, 8(2):181 - 195, 1985.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
The speech register used by adults with infants and young children, known as motherese, is linguistically simplified and characterized by high pitch and exaggerated intonation. This study investigated infant selective listening to motherese speech. The hypothesis tested was that infants would choose to listen more often to motherese when given the choice between a variety of natural infant-directed and adult-directed speech samples spoken by four women unfamiliar to the subjects. Forty-eight 4-month-old infants were tested in an operant auditory preference procedure. Infants showed a significant listening preference for the motherese speech register.
@Article{Fernald1985,
  author   = {Anne Fernald},
  journal  = {Infant Behavior and Development},
  title    = {Four-month-old infants prefer to listen to motherese},
  year     = {1985},
  issn     = {0163-6383},
  number   = {2},
  pages    = {181 - 195},
  volume   = {8},
  abstract = {The speech register used by adults with infants and young children,
	known as motherese, is linguistically simplified and characterized
	by high pitch and exaggerated intonation. This study investigated
	infant selective listening to motherese speech. The hypothesis tested
	was that infants would choose to listen more often to motherese when
	given the choice between a variety of natural infant-directed and
	adult-directed speech samples spoken by four women unfamiliar to
	the subjects. Forty-eight 4-month-old infants were tested in an operant
	auditory preference procedure. Infants showed a significant listening
	preference for the motherese speech register.},
  doi      = {10.1016/S0163-6383(85)80005-9},
  groups   = {Infant direct speech},
  keywords = {motherese},
}

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