What's happening? How children understand stories.

For 6- to 13-year-olds living in the US

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the "Schedule a time to participate" button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

During the live call, your child will listen to short stories with colorful pictures, where two characters engage in different activities. Following each story, your child will answer two simple comprehension questions about what and who the speaker is talking about by clicking on pictures.

The study is divided into two sections, with a fun card-matching game in between for a short break.

Do children adapt to the way others use language? We already know that people are highly sensitive to patterns in speech, tracking such as how words and sentence structures are used in conversation. Research has shown that adults can quickly pick up on more complex patterns like reference within a story to learn how language is used in the current context. We are interested in whether children do the same by tracking what and who the speaker is talking about in a story. This reveals how they process what they hear and how early experiences shape communication and learning. This research may ultimately help us better understand language development and the ways children interact with the world around them.

25 minutes

We will email you a $8 Amazon gift card within a week after you participate in this study. The gift card will be issued for Amazon.com (U.S. site) and may not be redeemable on other international Amazon sites. To be eligible for the gift card, you must submit a valid consent form, and your child must submit a valid assent form if they are age 7 or older. Also, your child must (1) meet the age and language eligibility for the study, and (2) show up AND be visible during the scheduled session. Each child is eligible to participate in the study and receive a gift card only once. You and your child do not need to finish the whole study to receive the gift card.