Which characters make the machine go?

For 10- to 12-month-olds who are based in the U.S.

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Participate Now!” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. In this Zoom-based study, your baby will watch short videos with simple animated characters interacting with an object. Some characters belong to the same group, while others belong to different groups. We'll examine how your baby attends to the videos.

Young babies already know a lot about how the world works. For example, they understand that people or characters can cause changes in the world, such as pushing a ball and making it roll. Babies are also sensitive to social groups: they notice when individuals imitate each other or act in coordinated ways.
In this study, we are interested in whether babies expect members of the same group to cause something to happen together. During the study, babies will be introduced to two groups of characters: circles and stars. The characters will interact in pairs with a machine displayed in the center of the screen. We want to see whether babies can learn that two characters from the same group are more likely to activate the machine than two characters from different groups.

20 minutes

Infants will receive a $5 online gift card and an optional certificate of participation, if requested. To receive the gift card and certificate, the infant must be within the age range for our study. Each infant will only receive one gift card. We can compensate participants with an Amazon US or Target gift card, and families can request an alternate gift card if they would prefer one. We'll ask you about what gift cards work for your family, and we'll work with our lab manager to get you a suitable gift card.