The ideal of scientific progress is that we accumulate measurements and
integrate these into theory, but recent discussion of replicability issues
has cast doubt on whether psychological research conforms to this model.
Developmental research – especially with infant participants – also has
discipline-specific replicability challenges, including small samples due
to high recruitment costs and limited measurement methods. Inspired by
collaborative replication efforts in cognitive and social psychology, we
describe a proposal for assessing and promoting replicability in infancy
research: large-scale, multi-lab replication efforts aiming for a more
precise understanding of key developmental phenomena. The ManyBabies
project, our instantiation of this proposal, will not only help us estimate
how robust and replicable these phenomena are, but also gain new
theoretical insights into how they vary across ages, linguistic
communities, and measurement methods. This project has the potential for a
variety of positive outcomes, including less-biased estimates of
theoretically-important effects, estimates of variability that can be used
for later study planning, and a series of best-practices blueprints for
future infancy research.