Help Professor Puff Learn About Birds!

For children aged 5 to 6 years who are hearing English at home.

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. On a Zoom call with a researcher, your child will meet a set of cartoon alien birds who each have different shaped bones. Your child will see what shape of bone (triangle, circle, diamond, square) each bird has. Then, they will meet a few new alien birds and decide which bones those new birds might have. Because we’re focusing on children’s use of English shape words, we can only include children who are hearing English at home.

We are interested in understanding how children learn rules and generalize them across groups. For instance, it is generally believed that cats like to eat fish; although some cats do not and are exceptions to this rule. When do children form a rule about birds having certain shaped bones? For example, if children learn that 60% of birds have the same shape of bone, does that mean they will infer that all other birds also have bones with that shape? How many exceptions to the rule will children allow before they bypass learning the rule altogether?

15 minutes

As a token of appreciation, you will receive a $5 Amazon.com e-gift card within 2 weeks. You are eligible for this payment if your child meets all the eligibility criteria, is present in the Consent Video at the start of the study, and has not participated in the study before.