Would you like to help us investigate how babies learn language? We’re running two fun experiments your babies will enjoy! Did you know that even before babies speak their first words, they are working hard to also learn the grammatical rules of their language(s)? In this study, we let 7 month old babies listen to a novel language. After a brief listening phase, we measure their looking behaviour. In this way we can understand how well they learned the rules in the language. We also investigate whether multilingual babies are better at learning these rules. The study takes approximately 15 minutes, and babies with every language background can participate. Get in touch with us for more information and sign ups!
Martina Zaharieva
Although helpless at birth, young infants quickly become more and more purposeful in their interactions with their social and physical world, as well as in their ability to intervene with their own cognitive and emotional states. Infants also differ substantially in the way they exert control over their attention and emotion. In my PhD projects, I design infant-friendly eye-tracking tasks in which I study these individual differences to predict and explain later-life cognitive development.
Maartje Raijmakers
How do infants view the world and how does this affect the new insights they gain? These are important questions in my research on the development of learning processes and knowledge from infants to adults. I am also interested in the role of emotions. (Professor of Cognitive Development, University of Amsterdam).
Ingmar Visser
My research focuses on learning in children and infants: what do they look at in the world and what do they learn from that? Which information do they use to learn new concepts and words? What draws their attention and what doesn’t? I am associate professor of developmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam, and together with colleagues and students we try to answer these questions. Also as a father of two I am interested in children, their development and how to best support them.
The Baby Lab participates in replication research
The Amsterdam Babylab believes in reliable science and actively participates in replication research. Among other things we participate in NWO funded research into the building blocks of cognition: https://www.nwo.nl/actueel/nieuws/2018/12/replicatiestudies-tweede-ronde-weer-belangrijk-onderzoek-opnieuw-doen.html
GEAR: Growing Emotion and Attention Regulation
Join us for a fun adventure at UvA’s Baby Lab and contribute to science! Young infants learn very quickly to steer their attention by looking at things they enjoy, or find odd or exciting and the way they explore their visual world can tell us a lot about how they learn to interact with it purposefully. In the GEAR project, we use eye-tracking and video recordings to study how infants learn to regulate their emotion and attention during brief infant-friendly tasks. We also ask you to fill out an online questionnaire about some skills and behaviors you have recently seen your infant do. Get in touch with us for more information and sign ups! For more information, you can also read our infromation brochure:
Information-Brochure_GEAR-Longitudinal