Current Child Scientist Opportunities

Toy-Play Study

Ages needed: 10 - 30 months

Visits: in-home, once a day for one week

COVID policy: To ensure parent and child safety, this study will be conducted in participants' homes, without a researcher present. The cameras and toys are disinfected and set aside for at least 24 hours in between participants.

Study Description: We want to understand how parents and infants play with spatial toys like blocks and nesting cups. Parents and infants will each be given a headband with a lightweight camera to place on their infant's head during the play session, providing a first-person perspective of their visual experience during the session. Studying the visual environments of infants during spatial play may help us understand how infants learn about relationships between objects, like "over / under", "in / on", or "in front / behind".

To sign up for this study, click here

Infant Vision Study

Ages needed: 0-15 months

Visits: 1 visit

Study description: We want to understand what is in the visual environments of infants and toddlers, and whether they change across the first two years of life. We give parents a soft cap - with a light-weight camera sewn in - to place on their infant's head. Parents are asked to turn the camera on whenever the infant is awake to record the natural scenes in their infant's everyday lives. Statistical regularities in visual environments are deeply connected to the visual system. Characterizing and quantifying the early visual environments of infants and toddlers may help us understand how the visual system gets built.

To sign up for this study, click here

Free Play Study

Ages needed: 12-30 months

Visits: 1 visit

Covid policy: Toys are thoroughly sanitized in between sessions and researchers will be masked at all times.

Study description: We want to understand what typical play looks like between infants/toddlers and parents. Children will wear a head camera while enjoying free play time with a parent/care giver. We will also ask the parent and child to read a book together at the end of the session. Free play gives researchers lots of different information about the way that parents and children interact and learn from each other.

To sign up for this study, click here