What's That Sound?

For 3 - 5 year olds

In this study, your child will watch short videos of two characters rolling a ball back and forth behind a screen. They will hear a sound and use it to guess which character rolled the ball.

How do children combine what they see and what they hear to figure out what happened when they didn't see what happened? Earlier research found that children do not fully develop the ability to combine visual and sound information until around age eight. But those earlier studies used a game where balls dropped into a box, and younger children were often distracted by thinking that balls should fall straight down, like how gravity works. This made it hard to tell whether children could imagine what was happening. Our new study avoids that problem by showing videos where the ball is moving sideways instead of falling. This makes it easier for younger children to mentally simulate the ball’s movement and use both what they see and what they hear to infer who rolled it.

15-20 minutes

You will receive a $5 Amazon gift card as a token of appreciation for participating in this study. After you finish the game, we will message you the gift card redemption link within a week. To be eligible for the gift card your child must be in the age range for this game, you need to submit a valid consent statement and your child needs to be visible during the game. You can only receive compensation for participating once per child; if your child participates again you will not be compensated. But we will send a gift card even if you do not finish the whole game or we are not able to use your child's data.