Team up with Gizmo!

For 5- to 6-year-olds

Children will work together to count stars in the galaxy with Gizmo, a friendly alien from outer space. Children will look at various pictures of stars in the galaxy and tell us (i) if they saw more stars of a certain color, (ii) how challenging they felt that choice to be, and (iii) whether the next picture should go to themselves, or to their teammate, Gizmo. Occasionally, Gizmo might struggle with the star-counting game and display some negative emotions.

The goal of this study is to understand how children navigate interpersonal challenges when working with a teammate, such as keeping a teammate engaged and motivated when a task becomes frustrating. Specifically, prior research has shown that children can assign their teammates specific tasks based on how well they perform in a certain task. However, we don't yet know if children can make these assignments based on the emotions (e.g., frustration) of their teammates, not just their competence. Understanding how children navigate the emotional challenges of collaborations – and where they struggle – will help us learn how children build lifelong social skills, and has important implications for the science of teamwork.

15 min

To thank you for your participation, you will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card within 1 week of your participation. To be eligible to receive the gift card, (i) your child must be in the age range for the study, (ii) you need to provide a valid consent statement, (iii) we need to see that there is a child with you during the video, and (iv) this needs to be the first time that your child is participating in this study.