About the project
Infants, children, and even adults tend to look longer when something unexpected or surprising happens. By measuring how long babies look to different events, we can learn what they already understand and expect from their environment—and what violates those expectations.
By studying overall patterns in how infants and children respond, we can uncover what they know and how much they understand at different ages.
Goals
One of the most important developmental tasks for young children is to figure out who has what kinds of social relationships, and what this means for how people act in different situations.
At our baby Lab, we study how preverbal infants and toddlers approach this task and which innate abilities they rely on. We are also interested in understanding what distinguishes children’s social understanding from that of adults, and what they have in common. Sometimes, parents are also invited to participate in our studies together with their children.
Participation
To expand our knowledge about infants’ and toddlers’ abilities, we rely on close collaboration with families who take part in our short and enjoyable studies.
If you are expecting a baby, or have a child between 0 and 6 years of age, and are happy for us to contact you when a study fits your child’s age, we would love to hear from you.
If you have older children who would like to join, we can arrange babysitting and toys for them. Many families take part in several studies, but participation only requires a single visit. You are of course never obliged to take part in more than one. We conduct both in-person studies at our lab and online studies over Zoom.
What does participation look like?
All studies are designed as short games, animations, or puppet shows, lasting about 5–15 minutes. As a thank you, your child will receive a small gift. If you take part in a lab-based study, we will also be happy to show you the video recording of you and your child.
Your child will sit on your lap throughout the study. Most babies and toddlers enjoy taking part, but if your child gets tired, hungry, or restless and you would like to stop, we will of course end the study immediately. For us, it is far more important that your child has fun than that we finish the session.
Background
In recent years, international research in early social-cognitive developmental psychology has shown that preverbal infants understand much more than previously assumed. Our BabyLab is an active part of this research.
For example, did you know that even before acquiring language, infants understand relationships such as social dominance? Babies only a few months old can already distinguish between people and objects, and they understand when someone is trying to achieve a goal. They recognize that people may like different things and are surprised when someone suddenly changes their preference. Infants as young as three months also notice when someone is helping or hindering others in reaching a goal, and they clearly prefer those who are helpful.
