Faces, Familiarity, and Baby’s Personality!

Babies aged 6 months to 18 months who live in the United States.

Your child will view two sets of face images, and we will measure which faces they look at the longest. For each set, they will see a single face followed by two faces side-by-side, and each group of faces will be of a different race. This part of the study takes about 5 minutes. After this, you'll complete a survey about your child’s background, caregiving network, and their typical behavior and reactions in different situations. The survey should take no more than 25 minutes. Depending on your child’s current age, you may be invited to participate again in the future for additional compensation.

Babies become skilled at recognizing faces from a young age, but this ability is shaped by their everyday experiences. The types of faces that babies are exposed to most often influence how they remember and recognize new faces as they grow. In this study, we hope to better understand why some babies recognize certain faces more easily than others. Survey responses will help us explore whether babies' early personalities and/or their caregiving environment contribute to their face recognition abilities. By including babies from a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds, our goal is to build a more complete picture of how face processing develops across infancy and toddlerhood.

5 minutes of child participation + 25 minutes of caregiver surveys (30 minutes total)

You will be emailed a $10 Amazon.com e-gift card after we confirm your consent video and check that your child meets all eligibility criteria, typically within 1 week of your participation. Your child should be clearly visible in the video consent and throughout the trials. If you have multiple children that participate, you will receive one gift card per child. Depending on your child’s current age, you may be invited to participate in this study again in the future. If so, you will receive an additional $10 compensation each time you choose to participate.