Category: Research

How do babies learn? The ability to learn rules is at the heart of human cognition, essential for things like language, playing chess, and solving problems. But when do we develop this ability? Can babies already learn rules?

 Together with labs across the world, we here at the University of Amsterdam are starting the exciting ManyBabies 3 project to answer these questions. We will present 5 to 12 month old babies with recordings of syllable sounds. Meanwhile, we observe their eye movements and head-turn behavior to gain a deeper understanding into whether babies use rules to learn languages. The study takes approximately 15 minutes. 

Are you interested in joining us at the lab with your baby? Babies of all language backgrounds are welcomed. Let us know here and we will get in touch with you with more info!

Would you like to join our fun experiment with your baby to investigate social evaluation in infants? 

Evaluating others is a crucial aspect of adult life, but do infants have the same ability to socially evaluate? As part of the ManyBabies 4 project, we are investigating whether infants between 5.5 and 10.5 months prefer prosocial over antisocial characters. To study this, we let infants watch a fun videotaped puppet show involving a helper and a hinderer. To understand how they evaluate the characters, we then measure which of the characters they prefer by observing which character they reach for. The study takes approximately 15-30 minutes. Feel free to contact us for further information and sign up!

At the very core of humanity lies the ability to mentalise – to comprehend that other people have their own thoughts and feelings, intentions and knowledge. But when exactly does this capacity develop in us? We are one of more than 20 labs around the world exploring this fundamental question in developmental psychology as part of the ManyBabies 2 (MB2) collaborative project. In this study, we let both infants aged 18 to 27 months and adults watch short animated films. Meanwhile, we measure their looking behavior. This way, we gain insight into their understanding of what others know. The study takes approximately 15 minutes.

If you are fascinated by the complexity of the human mind and want to be part of a groundbreaking research, get in touch for more information and sign-ups!

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!

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