Babies' Relationships with Their Caregivers

For babies from 7 months and 0 days to 10 months and 30 days

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Participate Now!” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select up to two dates and times that works for you. Before the study, we'll ask you to make a short 10-second video using your webcam. For this video, you need to say "Hello there" as though you're talking to your baby. If you agree to participate, we'll send you instructions on making the video, which should take under 5 minutes to create. In this Zoom-based study, your baby will watch videos of you and an unfamiliar adult. We’re curious about how babies think about their parents and guardians, relative to strangers.

As adults, we might think that objects (e.g., a backpack) are more interchangeable than are people, especially people whom we're close to (e.g., our parents or children). The present study asks whether babies might also have that intuition. Do babies think of their caregivers as being distinct from unfamiliar adults? Do babies track their own caregivers better than they do strangers? This study will shed light on how babies start mapping out their social network, which may guide their learning and interactions with others.

20 minutes

Children can participate up to two times (on two separate days), and after each session, they will receive a separate $5 online gift card and a certificate of participation, within 24 hours of participating. To receive the gift cards and certificate, the child must be within the age range for our study, and the parents and guardians must have created the videos by 12 pm EST the day before the first study session. Each child will only receive one gift card per session. We can compensate participants with an Amazon US gift cards, or with alternative online gift cards (e.g., Target). We'll ask you about what gift cards work for your family, and we'll work with our lab manager to get you a suitable gift card.