How babies think about surprising objects

For 12- to 16-month-old

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. We will show your baby a series of videos short videos showing some toys performing magical or normal actions. We are interested in how your baby reacts to the toys after observing the events!

Previous studies have shown that babies understand physical principles an object should follow. For example, they look longer at a ball if it appears to pass through a solid wall, showing that babies recognize that objects should be solid and not go through each other. In this study we want to explore how infants think about objects that behave in these kinds of surprising ways. After seeing an object behave unexpectedly, do they still expect this object to obey physical rules? To find out, we will compare babies’ interest in a toy that does two surprising things in comparison to just one.

15 minutes

Each participant who is in the required age range will receive a $5 gift card from Amazon.com within two weeks of completing the study.