Experimental research on language acquisition and development regularly employs auditory stimuli as part of the methodology. This project analyses the apparent standard practice of using female speakers to produce these experimental materials and the potential consequences of such a practice. To situate the discussion in the current scientific landscape we present a systematic review of published literature between 2017 and 2022 to establish how prevalent this practice is. The review finds a strong bias in favour of female-spoken stimuli across publications in a curated set of nine journals. We discuss this result in light of gender-based workplace inequality, changing caregiver expectations and the reliability of infants' assumed female voice preference. This project seeks to encourage researchers to consider how diversifying the stimuli used in these types of studies would lead to both a more inclusive and representative research landscape, as well as ensure that our research results are generalizable.

中文翻译：

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检查实验性语言习得研究中女性说话者的默认情况

关于语言习得和发展的实验研究经常采用听觉刺激作为方法的一部分。该项目分析了使用女性演讲者制作这些实验材料的明显标准做法以及这种做法的潜在后果。为了将讨论置于当前的科学格局中，我们对 2017 年至 2022 年间已发表的文献进行了系统回顾，以确定这种做法的普遍程度。审查发现，九种精选期刊的出版物中存在强烈偏向女性口语刺激的倾向。我们根据基于性别的工作场所不平等、不断变化的护理人员期望以及婴儿假设的女性声音偏好的可靠性来讨论这一结果。该项目旨在鼓励研究人员考虑如何使这些类型的研究中使用的刺激多样化，从而形成更具包容性和代表性的研究格局，并确保我们的研究结果具有普遍性。