Current Studies

In our lab, we study cognitive and perceptual development in infants approximately 0-3 years of age. Our overarching goal is to better understand how infants' understanding of people, faces, objects, and language develops in the first 3 years of life. We hope to improve our understanding of cognitive development during infancy. You have probably read about research like ours in parenting magazines or psychology textbooks. We are currently conducting several studies in our lab. 

Sticky Mittens Study

The age range for this study is 3.5 - 5.2 months.

This project is one of our graduate student's dissertation studies. She is interested in how infants learn while playing with toys! Participating takes about an hour of your time and involves a short 5 minute "sticky mittens" play session with your baby (play session with velcro mittens and velcro balls), watching a 5-10 minute video, and then filling out a questionnaire.

Switch Study

The age range for this study is 5.5 - 8.5 months.

This project is an ongoing study in our lab that looks at how infants learn about faces at different ages and how sitting ability affects this learning. Total this will take about half an hour of your time and will involve a quick assessment of sitting ability (just a way to measure how well your child is sitting on their own) and watching a 5-10 minute video, and then filling out a short questionnaire.

Many Babies Study and Follow-Up

The age range for this study is 9 - 24 months.

This is an exciting new study in the Infant Cognition Lab! We are a part of a multi-lab collaboration investigating how infants pay attention to different types of speech. This study will take about 30 minutes of your time. It involves collecting some basic information about you and your family, then your child will watch a brief video with audio clips while sitting in your lap. Because this is a project involving several labs, your child’s data will be shared with our research partners. 

The age range for the follow-up study is 16 - 20 months.

Other Studies

An important application of our research is that it can help us understand development in children with developmental delays or disabilities. In collaboration with Dr. Carolyn Mervis and her lab, we also study cognitive development in infants and children with William syndrome.

Contact Us

We really appreciate all the families who have volunteered to participate in our research! If you or someone you know is in the Louisville area and would like to participate in one of our studies, please contact us at (502) 852-6852 or e-mail us at uoflbaby@louisville.edu! You can also check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/babythinker.