Ongoing Studies
The Ch.I.L.D Research Group is always looking for new child scientists to participate in our research. Here are our studies currently looking for participants!
Parent-Child Free-Play Interactions and Word Learning
As infants' language skills develop, they start recognizing speech sounds and patterns, which allows them to add new words to their vocabulary. Previous research has shown that this learning process involves establishing connections between specific words and the objects they represent. However, there has been limited investigation into how different types of parent-child interactions, such as co-viewing, affect a child's ability to learn new words, especially when learning from a video. Additionally, we are interested in understanding how child-parent free-play interactions and interruptions to these interactions impact a child's learning outcomes. In this study, we use non-invasive eye-tracking technology to examine the various contexts in which parent-child interactions influence the learning process.
This study is looking for new participants!
We are recruiting 14- and 18-month-old participants for this in-person study, which will be held at the University of Calgary (with free parking and babysitting provided). Your child will receive a toy prize, a t-shirt, and a certificate for their contribution.
To sign up, please contact selena.kahlert@ucalgary.ca or register for our database!
Can't find what you're looking for?
Sign up for our database to be contacted when we are recruiting for a study your child is eligible for!
Vocal Emotional Cues in Unfamiliar Languages
This study investigates whether emotional cues in language are universally understood. Here, we focus on emotional prosody, which involves changes in speech to convey your emotions without having to explicitly state them. 4-year-olds will view images while hearing sentences spoken in Arabic, an unfamiliar language to them. They'll be prompted to point and look at the image that matches the emotional tone of the voice. The study will also use cognates in the utterance, which are words in another language similar to the word in English, to see if some familiarity aids preschoolers in interpreting emotional cues in an unfamiliar language.
This study is looking for 4-4.5-year-olds to participate in our study!
In the present study, we use non-invasive, eye-tracking technology to investigate whether or not young children use emotional prosodic cues in an unfamiliar language.
Children will listen to either a happy-sounding or sad-sounding voice speaking in Arabic and are asked to match the voice to either a happy- or sad-looking object. Children must speak at least 80% English in the home and have not been previously exposed to the Arabic language.
This study is being conducted in-person at the University of Calgary, in which we will provide free parking and free babysitting during the study. Your child will receive a toy prize, t-shirt, and certificate for their contribution.
Interested?
If your child is 4-4.5-years-old, and you are interested in participating, please contact tyler.birse@ucalgary.ca or sign up for our database!