Who is this animal?

Who is this animal?

Infant and Child Development Center (Northwestern University)

Who Can Participate

For babies aged 11.5 to 12.5 months who learn English as their first language and who reside in the United States

What Happens

In this study, you will be asked to fill out a short survey. Then, your baby will watch a short video filled with cute, stuffed animals and hear names for these animals (like "dax"). Then, the animals will hide behind a screen, and your baby will watch as the screen is then raised. We will record how interested your baby is in looking at what animal comes out from behind the screen.

What We're Studying

We are interested in how well babies remember which objects they have seen, and whether they remember better if the object (like a particular dog) was given its own name. Babies pay close attention to what we say to them, even before they can produce their own words. This tells us that how we name objects for them can already guide how they think about these objects. Here, we are asking if babies still remember that an object is the same one even if it disappears and reappears. We test whether this is influenced by the way the objects are named.

Duration

10 minutes

Compensation

$5 Amazon.com gift card. After you finish the study, we will email you an Amazon.com gift card within 1 week. To be eligible for compensation, the following criteria must be met: (1) your child must be in the age range for this study and be learning English as his/her first language; (2) You must be located in the United States; (3) you need to submit a valid video consent statement; (4) we need to see that there is a child with you in the study participation video. You can only receive compensation for this study once per child.

This study is conducted by Dr. Sandra Waxman (alisonlobo2026@u.northwestern.edu).

Would you like to participate in this study?