Hey, I know what that means!

For 2-year-olds

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 study, your child will interact with a live researcher and a friendly alien named Weepo. Weepo would like to know if your child knows the meaning of some words he has learned. Your child will see some images, then Weepo will describe one, and ask your child to find it.

In this study, we’re interested in what very young children know about the words we use to describe properties of things in the world. Some of these words are harder to learn and take longer to acquire in child development, because they place restrictions on the kind of objects and individuals they can describe—and this is the kind of thing we don’t teach children! For example, only animals and people can be sleepy or alert. Chairs and plants can't be! We want to know if two-year-olds are aware of these restrictions, because this will help us to know what exactly they learn when they first learn these words, and what might have to be acquired later on.

15 minutes

$5 Amazon.com gift card. We will email you an Amazon gift card within 1 week of the study. To be eligible for compensation, the following criteria must be met: (1) Your child must be in the age range for this study and must not have previously done this study; (2) You must have provided informed consent; and (3) your child must be visible during the video.