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Infant Learning & Development Laboratory (University of Chicago)

Who Can Participate

For babies ages 17-19 months who were born at full term (37+ weeks) and hear English at home

What Happens

Your baby will watch short video clips in which people try to interact with your baby by saying hi, playing peek-a-boo, making animal sounds, etc. We will measure how your baby responds to these videos, such as how long they look at the person, how much they smile, and how much they make sounds. We will ask you (the parent) to put your baby in a highchair and avoid influencing their responses by closing your eyes or looking down. We will also ask you to fill out a demographic survey with optional questions about your zip code and neighborhoods immediately after the videos. At the end of the study, you will have the option to complete two optional external surveys about your baby's temperament (your baby's unique behavioral styles) and social network (the people your baby sees and interacts with regularly).

What We're Studying

In this study, we are interested in how babies react to strangers they see on video. Previous studies studying baby's reactions to strangers often take place in-person in traditional laboratory settings. This study will help develop a new online format that we hope will make these types of studies more accessible to more diverse families.

In addition, we want to explore how babies' reactions might differ according to whether the stranger speaks a familiar or a less familiar language (English and Spanish). This study will help us understand how babies start to think about strangers and whether they use language as a cue to guide their social behaviors.

Duration

7 to 10 minutes for your baby to complete. As the parent, you will be asked to complete a few surveys that can take up to 15-30 minutes

Compensation

After you finish the study, we will email you a $10 Amazon gift card within approximately a week. We will also provide a $5 Amazon gift card for each of the two optional parent surveys ($20 total compensation if you do the study with your child and both parent surveys). To be eligible for the gift card, you should be located in the United States, your baby should not have completed this study before, your child must be in the age range for this study, you need to submit a valid consent statement, and we need to see that there is a child with you. We will send a gift card even if you do not finish the whole study or we are not able to use your child's data.

This study is conducted by Professor Amanda Woodward (contact: chicago.infant.learning@gmail.com).

Would you like to participate in this study?