Effect of speaker reliability on word learning in children: A replication study

This study aimed to replicate the in-person speaker reliability research conducted by Gangopadhyay & Kaushanskaya (2022; henceforth G&K) using a fully online methodology. Twenty children aged 4 to 6 years participated in a live video call with the experimenter and completed virtual tasks on a web-based platform. The experimental task mirrored that used in G&K, where children learned novel words from both a reliable and an unreliable speaker, followed by testing children’s novel word retention. Consistent with G&K's findings, children performed above chance in both conditions and retained novel labels taught by both speakers. These preliminary results suggest that speaker reliability is a robust cue, showing consistent effects across different data collection methods. Thus, online data collection can yield viable results, enhancing the accessibility, flexibility, and equity of participation in child language research.