Where are you from? Preschoolers infer background from accent

For adults, accent is an obvious indicator of a speaker's geographical background. The current study investigated whether preschoolers are sensitive to the relationship between background and accent. Experiment 1 shows that 3- to 5-year-olds believe that two speakers who share the same accent live in the same place but do not share the same personal preferences. Experiment 2 demonstrates that 4- and 5-year-olds believe that two speakers with the same accent share cultural norms associated with a particular place, but that two speakers with different accents have different cultural norms. As in Experiment 1, children did not think that personal preferences were related to accent. These findings show early awareness of the relationship between accent and geographical background.