Did She Communicate?

12-to-15-month-olds

During this study, you will first be asked to fill out a vocabulary survey (a checklist of 91 words and 4 questions). Then, your child will watch videos of two people interacting. One person will try but fail to place a ring on a funnel and then either cough or say words in a made-up language to ask the other person for help. We will observe how long your child watches what happens next to better understand what they expect the second person to do.

Previous research has found that babies at 12 months know that speech can communicate about something that’s hard to see directly, like intentions. That study was done in person. We want to see if we find the same results online.
This will help us better understand how babies recognize and interpret communication, while also exploring whether online studies can be used to investigate these early abilities.

15 minutes

The compensation for this study is an electronic $5 Amazon.com gift card that will be sent within 2 weeks of participation. To be eligible for compensation, the following criteria must be met: (1) your child must be in the age range for this study and be learning English as their first language; (2) you must submit a valid video consent statement; (3) a child must be seen with you in the study participation video. One child can only participate in the study once. Compensation does not depend on completion of the study or your child’s performance.