Is the boy holding the ball?

We are recruiting children ages 5 to 7 years old. Siblings in this age range are welcome to join the same Zoom session; however, each child will complete the study tasks individually.

​​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.

You will complete a consent form and a demographic questionnaire, where you will provide some basic information (such as background information and your email address for the reward).
During the session, your child will be shown pictures of children interacting with different objects (e.g., ball, umbrella, toy) and asked questions about what they see. Sometimes children will be holding the objects, and other times they will not. We will ask your child, using different question forms, about whether the child is holding the object (e.g., “Is the boy holding the ball?” or “Who is holding the ball?”).

Children are asked many questions, in many forms, on a daily basis. Previous research has found that the way adults phrase questions impacts young children’s ability to respond. For example, children provide more detailed responses when asked wh- questions (e.g., Who is holding the ball?) compared to yes-no questions (Is the boy holding the ball?). However, very little research has directly compared children’s responses to these various question types, when the answer is yes (e.g., the boy is holding the ball) or no (e.g., the boy is not holding the ball). In this study, we are interested in how children answer questions, phrased in different forms.

20 minutes

Families will receive a $5 Tango gift card for each participating child. This can be redeemed at various locations, including Amazon, Target, etc. (see https://www.tangocard.com/reward-catalog). The gift card will be emailed within one week.

You will be compensated even if your child is unable to complete the whole study. However, we cannot compensate unless you attend the Zoom call with an age-appropriate child, and we cannot compensate for the participation of a single child more than once.