See The Dots

For infants 5 to 12 months old

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. During the session, your child will first watch a short animation of cute fish and then see simple videos made of moving dots; in some, the dots move together or form an overall pattern, and in others they are more random. We are interested in what babies choose to look at, which helps us learn how they use motion and overall pattern to make sense of what they see.

Even before babies can talk, their eyes tell us a lot about how they understand the world. Previous research shows that infants will look longer at things that are interesting or meaningful to them. Babies can notice when dots move together in the same direction or when dots are arranged into an organized pattern. However, we still don’t know whether babies notice organized motion sooner than they notice organized shapes. Our study asks two main questions: 1) Do babies prefer looking at dots that move together? 2) Do babies prefer looking at dots that form an overall pattern (form)? By comparing how long babies look at each type of display, we can learn how early visual systems develop and which parts of vision mature first.

10 minutes

We will email you a $5 Amazon gift card within a week via Amazon.com. To be eligible for the gift card, your child must be visible in the video chat.