Question

Human speech directed at infants, also known as baby talk, tends to use a higher pitch and slower tempo than standard speech and is known to accelerate language learning. Noting similarities between this infant-directed speech and the tone with which pet-owners address their dogs, researchers hypothesized that baby talk is not adopted due to the age of a given listener, but instead tends to be used when addressing any listener that is non-verbal. Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?

1) People tend to raise their pitch and slow their tempo when speaking to adult humans who are non-verbal.
2) People tend to speak to other verbal adults with a lower pitch and faster tempo.
3) Non-verbal adults tend to show less reactivity to baby talk than infants and children.
4) People tend to view their pet as juvenile regardless of the pet's actual age.

Answer 1

The finding that would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis is that people tend to speak to other verbal adults with a lower pitch and faster tempo.

Step-by-step explanation:

The finding that would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis is option 2) People tend to speak to other verbal adults with a lower pitch and faster tempo. If baby talk is used when addressing any listener that is non-verbal, then it would be reasonable to expect that people would use a different speaking style when communicating with verbal adults. By speaking to other verbal adults with a lower pitch and faster tempo, it would indicate that the use of higher pitch and slower tempo is specifically directed towards non-verbal individuals, supporting the researchers' hypothesis.