The DOI matches its Crossref record; 20 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
The first steps toward bilingual language acquisition have already begun at birth. When tested on their preference for English versus Tagalog, newborns whose mothers spoke only English during pregnancy showed a robust preference for English. In contrast, newborns whose mothers spoke both English and Tagalog regularly during pregnancy showed equal preference for both languages. A group of newborns whose mothers had spoken both Chinese and English showed an intermediate pattern of preference for Tagalog over English. Preference for two languages does not suggest confusion between them, however. Study 2 showed that both English monolingual newborns and Tagalog-English bilingual newborns could discriminate English from Tagalog. The same perceptual and learning mechanisms that support acquisition in a monolingual environment thus also naturally support bilingual acquisition.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Thus, it is not surprising that bilingual infants can differentiate between their two languages essentially from birth [132].”
From Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain (2012) · cites this paper as [132]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
A precursor of language acquisition in young infants
Mehler, J., Jusczyk, P. W., Dehaene‐Lambertz, G., Halsted, N., Bertoncini, J., & Amiel‐Tison, C. (1988) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/0010-0277(88)90035-2 · Cited by 1,662
Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal
Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (1999) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(99)00058-x · Cited by 1,281
Durational variability in speech and the Rhythm Class Hypothesis
Grabe, E., & Low, E. L. (2002) · De Gruyter eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110197105.515 · Cited by 961
Language discrimination by newborns: Toward an understanding of the role of rhythm.
Thierry Nazzi, A., Bertoncini, J., & Mehler, J. (1998) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037//0096-1523.24.3.756 · Cited by 914
Signal to Syntax; Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition
Levelt, C. C. (1999) · Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) · Cited by 805
Two-day-olds prefer their native language
Moon, C., Cooper, R. P., & Fifer, W. P. (1993) · Infant Behavior and Development · doi:10.1016/0163-6383(93)80007-u · Cited by 773
Language Discrimination by Human Newborns and by Cotton-Top Tamarin Monkeys
Ramus, F., HAUSER, M. D., Miller, C. T., Morris, D., & Mehler, J. (2000) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.288.5464.349 · Cited by 480
Visual Language Discrimination in Infancy
Weikum, W., Vouloumanos, A., Navarra, J., Soto‐Faraco, S., Sebastián‐Gallés, N., & Werker, J. F. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1137686 · Cited by 385
Self-citationBosch, L., & Sebastián‐Gallés, N. (1997) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(97)00040-1 · Cited by 375
Signal to syntax : bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition
Morgan, J. L., & Demuth, K. (1996) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315806822 · Cited by 354
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Arnberg L., 1985, Bilingual Review, 12, 20
- Bird S., Poster presented at the semiannual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
- Lin H., 2007, Journal of Chinese Linguistics and Computing, 17, 127
- Mok P.P.K., Chinese Journal of Phonetics
- 10.1037/0096-1523.24.3.756 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2012) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001 · Cited by 1,386
Language experienced in utero affects vowel perception after birth: a two‐country study
Moon, C., Lagercrantz, H., & Kuhl, P. K. (2012) · Acta Paediatrica · doi:10.1111/apa.12098 · Cited by 432
How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain?
Costa, A., & Sebastián‐Gallés, N. (2014) · Nature reviews. Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn3709 · Cited by 430
Near-infrared spectroscopy: A report from the McDonnell infant methodology consortium
Gervain, J., Mehler, J., Werker, J. F., Nelson, C. A., Csibra, G., Lloyd‐Fox, S., Shukla, M., & Aslin, R. Ν. (2010) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2010.07.004 · Cited by 387
Self-citationPerceptual narrowing during infancy: A comparison of language and faces
Maurer, D. M., & Werker, J. F. (2013) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.21177 · Cited by 354
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Byers-Heinlein, K., Burns, T. C., & Werker, J. F.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
- Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques (FR)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- ORCID
- Werker, Janet F.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-01-29
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 343-348
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2128446822
- Cited by
- 404
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 36.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Spectrum Research Repository (Concordia University) (acceptedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- James S. McDonnell Foundation
- University of British Columbia
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Luonnontieteiden ja Tekniikan Tutkimuksen Toimikunta
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- bilingualism, neonates, language preference, prenatal language exposure, language discrimination, Tagalog, English language, Chinese-English bilingualism, language acquisition, maternal speech
- MeSH terms
- Choice Behavior, Female, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Language Development, Male, Pregnancy, Psycholinguistics, Social Environment, Speech Perception, Multilingualism, Recognition, Psychology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
