What causes a feeling?

For 8- to 10-year-old children

In this study your child will be asked to report how strongly they feel various emotions while watching 20-25 short videos (about 5 seconds long). The videos range in what kind of emotion they tend to elicit (happiness, disgust, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, excitement, and pleasantness).
Along with rating how strongly they feel each emotion, we will also be measuring where your child is looking in each video.

CONTENT WARNING: This study is about emotional reactions, and the videos are intended to cause a variety of positive and negative emotions. This means that some might be scary (e.g., a real snake, with fangs, jumping at the screen), disgusting (e.g., animal feces/vomit), or other forms of unpleasant content (e.g., adults chastising camera).

How do children learn about and understand emotional events? Is it different in babies, young children, teenagers, and adults?

We are ultimately interested in how emotions develop in children over time in both their behavior and brain! This study is going to help us see what videos we should use in a future in-person study where we can measure brain activity during video watching. Our research will help us answer what aspects of events and scenes help people learn about emotions and what parts of the brain use these important aspects in that emotional development.

Up to 1 hour

$10 via virtual debit card emailed within a week of participating. To receive compensation children must be within the target age range, and be visible in the video for the duration of the consenting process and task.

Even if the child does not complete the study, as long as eligibility requirements are met, you will be provided compensation.

Children can only participate once, and will not be compensated for multiple attempts.