EEG Studies:
Measuring Brainwaves while Listening to a Story
5-6 year olds, 9-10 year olds, & 14 year olds
In this study, your child would listen to a story while we record their brain activity using EEG (electroencephalography). After listening to the story your child would answer some questions about it and complete a standardized language assessment. Once they are done you would receive $30 compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice! If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!
**For an EEG recording, children wear a cap similar to a swim cap which is attached to a series of electrode wires that record electrical activity from the neurons firing in the brain. Importantly, it can only read electrical information; it cannot transmit any so there are no risks of shock. There is one inconvenience in setting up an EEG recording: for the electrodes to work, we apply saline gel to your child’s scalp which will make their hair gooey. This gel washes out with regular shampoo and water.
Non-EEG Studies:
The Picture Detective Game
Eyetracking study with 4-5 year olds
In this study, your child would play a short game designed to help us understand how children understand the words they hear while we record their eye-movements with our in-lab eye-tracking device. This device records where your child is looking on the screen but does not store any video data. After playing the game you would receive $10 compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice! If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!
Measuring Concept of Possibility with Cups
Action-based game and eyetracking study with 3 year olds
In this study, we will hide coins in cups and your child will try to find those coins. Different cups will have different likelihoods of containing the coin, so we are measuring how children reason about concepts like certainty and possibility. In one version of this study, children will play the game on the screen and we’ll measure their eye movements with our in-lab eye-tracking device, and in another version, they’ll be playing with real cups! Once they are done you would receive monetary compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice. If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!
Event Representation
Visual game with 5 year olds
In this study, your child will play a game where they view a series of fun, animated video clips, then be asked to identify the changes on them or sort them in different ways. At the end of the study, you will receive monetary compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice! If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!
Investigating Children’s Understanding of ‘Some’ and ‘All’
Eyetracking study with 11-13 month olds, 18-20 month olds and 3 year olds
In this brief study, your child will watch a series of videos depicting balls interacting with each other, while we use an eye-tracking machine to record their gaze patterns. Once they are done you would receive monetary compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice! If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!
Event Representation Using Toys
Interactive game with 3 and 4 year olds
In this study, your child would help us learn about how children represent events. Your child would play a game with a researcher where they take turns using our fun toys to demonstrate different actions. At the end of the study, you would receive monetary compensation and your child would receive a small toy of their choice! If you have a child in this age range and have participated in a study with us before please contact us! If you haven’t participated in an LDS study before please fill out this form and specify your interest in this study!