Silje Hagelund

• Visser, Ingmar; Geambasu, Andreea; Kachergis, George; Oliveira, Cátia M.; Rocha‐Hidalgo, Joscelin & Zettersten, Martin [Show all 84 contributors for this article] (2026). ManyBabies 3: A Multi‐Lab Study of Infant Algebraic Rule Learning. Developmental Science. ISSN 1363-755X. 29(6). doi: 10.1111/desc.70259. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  ABSTRACT The ability to learn and apply rules lies at the heart of cognition. In a seminal study, Marcus et al. (1999) reported that 7‐month‐old infants learned abstract rules over syllable sequences and were able to generalize those rules to novel syllable sequences. Dozens of studies have since replicated that finding and extended it using different rules, modalities, stimuli, participants (human adults and non‐human animals) and experimental procedures. Yet questions remain about the generalizability of the core findings in Marcus et al., and sources of variation across these findings. In the current study, we address this issue by testing 839 infants (650 after exclusions) of a wide age range (5;0–12;0 months) in a multi‐laboratory (30 laboratories, [31 samples]) conceptual replication of the Marcus et al. study. This study and the analysis plan were submitted as a registered report. A mixed‐model analysis of the looking times at consistent versus inconsistent test trials indicated no significant effect. The current study therefore finds no evidence for rule‐learning; to the contrary, a Bayesian analysis of the data indicated strong evidence for a null effect. This was similarly the case for the moderating factors that were part of the design: mono‐ versus multilingualism, age, and experimental paradigm; none of these factors showed significant effects. Robustness analyses indicated that the results were not different in the case of different choices in the (pre‐)processing of the data. A follow‐up analysis for single labs indicated that there was no evidence of rule‐learning in 30 of the 31 contributed samples. The current finding raises fundamental issues about rule‐learning that are presented in the Discussion section.

• Rosslund, Audun; Hagelund, Silje; Mayor, Julien & Kartushina, Natalia (2023). Mothers' and fathers' infant-directed speech have similar acoustic properties, but these are not associated with direct or indirect measures of word comprehension in 8-month-old infants. Journal of Child Language. ISSN 0305-0009. doi: 10.1017/S0305000923000557. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Previous research on infant-directed speech (IDS) and its role in infants’ language development has largely focused on mothers, with fathers being investigated scarcely. Here we examine the acoustics of IDS as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) in Norwegian mothers and fathers to 8-month-old infants, and whether these relate to direct (eye-tracking) and indirect (parental report) measures of infants’ word comprehension. Forty-five parent-infant dyads participated in the study. Parents (24 mothers, 21 fathers) were recorded reading a picture book to their infant (IDS), and to an experimenter (ADS), ensuring identical linguistic context across speakers and registers. Results showed that both mothers’ and fathers’ IDS had exaggerated prosody, expanded vowel spaces, as well as more variable and less distinct vowels. We found no evidence that acoustic features of parents’ speech were associated with infants’ word comprehension. Potential reasons for the lack of such a relationship are discussed.

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• Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Hagelund, Silje & Knoph, Rebecca (2026). What Does My Reader Need? Demonstrations of Audience Awareness in Sixth-Graders’ Written LEGO Instructions. Full text in Research Archive
• Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Hagelund, Silje; Knoph, Rebecca; Jerijærvi, Camilla Bøen & Lervåg, Arne (2026). Gender differences in self-reported audience awareness in middle schoolers’ argumentative writing. Full text in Research Archive
• Knoph, Rebecca; Hagelund, Silje & Torkildsen, Janne von Koss (2026). What Does My Reader Need? Audience Awareness in SixthGraders’ Written LEGO Instructions. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: Audience awareness is central to effective writing, requiring writers to anticipate readers’ needs and misunderstandings (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Hayes, 2012). Failures to support and consider readers have contributed to catastrophic consequences, including fatal radiation explosions linked to technical instructions that failed to anticipate user interpretation (Leveson & Turner, 1993). This study examines how Norwegian sixth-grade students demonstrate audience awareness through reader supports when writing LEGO-based procedural texts for real readers (though low-stakes), and whether these demonstrations differ by writer gender.Method: Seventy sixth-grade students wrote instructions for a specific peer to build a six-piece LEGO figure using only the written instructions, ensuring genuine communication. Three researchers independently coded texts for reader supports indicating audience awareness using a deductively-developed, inductively-refined rubric with seven categories: reader connection, adaptation, emphasis, sequential markers, figurative language, goals, and action support. Patterns of reader support use were compared by author gender using frequency counts and qualitative ex‐ amples.Results: Sixth-grade writers demonstrated audience awareness in procedural writing. Sequence markers were almost always present, and action support appeared in over half of essays, whereas reader-oriented supports (e.g., reader connection and goal orientation) appeared in only about one third. Girls produced substan‐ tially more reader supports than boys, with more than four times as many reader connection instances and twice as many adaptation, action support, and goal orientation instances. Discussion: Authentic, hands-on writing tasks can elicit clear demonstrations of audience awareness through reader supports, even in relatively short procedur‐ al texts (approximately 100 words). Despite the task being designed to align with boys’ LEGO-building interests and spatial reasoning strengths, girls more consistently and flexibly supported their readers. These findings suggest gender differences in how young writers conceptualize and enact audience awareness, underscoring the need for instructional approaches that explicitly support students in anticipating and responding to readers’ needs.

• Knoph, Rebecca; Hagelund, Silje & Torkildsen, Janne von Koss (2026). Writing Quality on a LEGO-Based Procedural Writing Task: Gender Differences in Analytic Traits. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  INTRODUCTION: Young writers demonstrate substantial potential for composing texts, and measures of cognit‐ ive capacity related to writing show no gender differences (Bourke & Adams, 2012). Despite this, boys often report lower motivation for school-based writing and greater difficulty with transcription and text production (Olinghouse, 2008), and girls consistently outperform boys on writing assessments (Kim, 2017). These differ‐ ences may be partly genre- and topic-related, as girls more often prefer narrative texts and boys factual or expository materials (McGeown, 2016). This study therefore examined gender differences in writing quality on a hands-on procedural task designed to broaden engagement and explicitly specify audience and pur‐ pose.METHODS: Seventy Norwegian sixth-grade students viewed an image of a six-piece LEGO figure and wrote instructions so a peer could rebuild the figure without the image. Texts were then rated using the six subdimensions of the 6+1 Traits framework (Culham, 2003).RESULTS: Girls outperformed boys on all dimen‐ sions except Word Choice, with the most robust gender difference observed for Voice (Hedges’ g=0.83). Smaller but underpowered gender differences were observed for remaining traits (0.15-0.48). All subscores were strongly correlated with total score (rs=.67-.94), and the correlational structure was equivalent between genders. Girls produced longer texts than boys (d = 0.48), and word count was moderately related to writing quality (rs=.38-.64). Adjusting for word count partially attenuated gender differences (38-71%), though controlling for word count may remove substantively meaningful variance, as word count likely reflects underlying differences in fluency and task engagement.CONCLUSIONS: Overall, gender differences in writing persisted even on the hands-on task de‐ signed to broaden engagement. Specifically, girls continued to outperform boys in expressive voice even after adjusting for word count, suggesting that while engaging task design is important, it may be insufficient to reduce gender differences in writing quality and potentially a focus on expressive voice for instruction, particularly for boys.

• Hagelund, Silje; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss & Lervåg, Arne (2026). Perspective-taking and writing motivation on writing quality. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A conference presentation about our study, where we examine whether writing motivation and perspective-taking correlate with 7th grade argumentative writing quality after accounting for foundational language skills. Specifically, we investigate how self-reported perspective-taking and writing motivation relate to three dimensions of argumentative writing: writing conventions (WC), language complexity (LC), and argumentative skills and audience awareness (AAW) when we account for oral language (vocabulary, listening comprehension), reading-related skills (reading comprehension, word decoding), and transcriptional skills (spelling, transcription).

• Hagelund, Silje; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss & Lervåg, Arne (2026). Can perspective-taking and writing motivation predict argumentative writing skills beyond reading comprehension and decoding in 7th-grade students? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A conference poster with results from our study examining how writing motivation and perspective-taking correlate with aspects of argumentative writing quality in 7th grade after accounting for foundational language skills.

• Kartushina, Natalia; Mayor, Julien; White, Michelle Jennifer; Gundersen, Anni Sofie Myrtveit; Onnis, Luca & Hagelund, Silje [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). Reliability of acoustic measures of infant-directed speech between lab and home environments and play and reading contexts. Full text in Research Archive
• Rosslund, Audun; Hagelund, Silje; Mayor, Julien & Kartushina, Natalia (2023). Mothers’ and fathers’ infant- directed speech have similar acoustic properties, but these are not associated with direct or indirect measures of word comprehension in 8-month-old infants. Full text in Research Archive
• Kartushina, Natalia; Robberstad, Silje & Mayor, Julien (2021). The Role of Parental Speech in Infant Language Development: Insights from 8-9-month-old Norwegian Infants . Full text in Research Archive

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