children scientists

On-going Research Projects

Many of our tasks ask children to learn new words -- in games, on the computer, or by viewing slides. We do this to understand how learning works and how it can be made easier. We are also interested in real world, everyday learning in naturalistic settings.

In the past, we (and lots of other researchers) followed young children around with cameras and clipboards, trying to understand their every day learning experiences. But these techniques just allow us to see the child in the world, they don't show us the child's world in the sense of what the child sees. In very exciting new research, we are putting lightweight head-cameras on children, a first attempt to see the world as they do.


Below is a list of our current studies and the ages that researchers are seeking for participation. We hope you find a study that excites you and sends you eagerly to filling out our on-line participation form.

Object Exploration

Yo wearing head cameraResearcher: Jen Richler, Research Scientist

Ages needed: 2 - 5 years

Visits: one-time visit



Study description: In this study, your child will wear a lightweight head camera while playing with a variety of toys. We are interested in learning about how children explore and manipulate objects. In addition to typically developing children, children with autism spectrum disorders will participate in this study.

If you would like to read some papers about head camera research, click here.

How Children Understand Number Magnitudes

Child placing marker on number lineResearcher: Richard Prather, Postdoctoral Fellow

Ages needed: 5 - 8 years old

Visits: one-time visit







Study description: We are studying what children know about number magnitudes, particularly very large numbers. To do this we have children play a series of number and magnitude games designed to help us understand what their concept about number is. The results of this study will help researchers understand how young children's number concepts develop.

Memory and Generalization in Early Word Learning

Child pointing at picture on a tableResearcher: Caitlin Fausey, Postdoctoral Fellow

Ages needed: 11 - 13 months, 18 - 30 months

Visits: one-time visit



Study description: We are interested in how children learn words over time. In this study, your child reads a picture book with a researcher. The pictures are novel objects and the researcher calls the objects by novel names. Later, your child answers questions about what s/he learned. We are curious to find out whether children learn different things when words are presented many times in a row versus when words are spaced out over time. Understanding how children handle temporal delays during word learning may lead to better insight about how children progress from child-like to adult-like word use.

How Preschool Children Use Math Manipulatives

Child playing with math manipulatives on a tableResearcher: Lisa Byrge, Graduate Student

Ages needed: 2.5 - 6 years

Visits: one-time visit



Study description: We are studying in detail what 2 through 6 year-olds know about concepts like place value, symbol notation, and magnitude. In our studies, we give children math manipulatives to see what kind of groupings or patterns they may produce. We ask children to compare two numbers or groups of dots, asking them questions like Which is more? or Which is 13? Our goal is to discover the most clear and efficient way to teach children about number.

Learning Language in Different Cultures

mom and child playing with animalsResearcher: Megumi Kuwabara, Graduate Student

Ages needed: 30 - 55 months

Visits: one-time visit



Study description: For one study, we will ask you and your child to play with commonly seen toys, such as animals, cars and we will videotape the interaction. We are asking children and parents in Japan to play with these toys as well. We are interested in understanding whether the different interaction patterns that we may observe from the U.S. parent-child and Japanese parent-child may effect the different attentional patterns that we observe in older children and adults. For another study, we ask children to see pictures and ask to find an object or to say what they see. In this study, we are comparing the performance of the U.S. children and Japanese children and are interested in when children develop the different attentional patterns in different cultures."

Number Knowledge

child making object choiceResearcher: Lisa Cantrell, Graduate Student

Ages needed: 6 - 7 months, 20 - 25 months

Visits: one-time visit


Study description: To understand what young children and infants know about quantity, in one study we show them pictures of different numbers (2 dots or 3 dots) and sizes (a large dot or a small dot) and simply record where infants are looking while being shown these different pictures. To explore what they know about how language can be used for different quantities, in another study we show children pictures of objects that are named either using words that are plural or singular and observe where they are looking while they hear these different words.

Paying Attention and Bilingualism

example of testing slideResearcher: Viridiana Benitez, Graduate Student

Ages needed: 16-17 months

Visits: one-time visit


Study description: We are interested in on how babies and young children learn to pay attention to the right information so that they rapidly learn which words go with which objects in their busy environments. Babies aged 16 to 17 months sit on their parent's lap and watch a brief video of pictures demonstrating associations between a color and a shape. We then look to see if your child looked at one shape longer than another. What color/shape associations your child looks at longer is a good indicator of what they have learned. We also work with the bilingual population (all ages) to examine how sorting through double the amount of language information changes how bilinguals allocate their attention and learn differently from their environment.

Attention and Word Learning

child and parent pointing at touch screen on computerResearcher: Catarina Vales, Graduate Student


Ages needed: 32 - 42 months

Visits: one-time visit



Study description: In these studies we are interested in how words may change the way infants and children attend to objects, and how that can be related to the processes by which they learn new words. In some studies we use a touchscreen and ask the child to search for a particular object and touch it. In other studies we present some pictures in a big screen and record where the infant is looking at each moment. We use different tasks across several age ranges, so we can understand the developmental changes that occur.

Object Recognition

child pointing to object choice in storybookResearcher: Char Wozniak, Project Researcher

Ages needed: 18 - 24 months

Visits: one-time visit






Study description: How do children recognize objects? Is it by their overall shape? Features? In our current study, we are examining how well children identify and recognize realistic images of everyday objects in picture books. Children are read a short book and asked to help find specific objects in the books by pointing. Recognizing how children recognize objects gives us key information about how children acquire language.

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