For Parents
- Online Studies
- In-Person Studies
- Baby Science Studies
- Autism Studies
- Studies for Parents
Baby Science
Welcome to the Baby Science Labs! We're a team of developmental psychology labs at UC San Diego that study infants under 24 months of age, as part of the larger Kid Science group.
Learn about:
Current Baby Science Studies
The studies below are for children under 24 months old and are currently running in-person at UC San Diego. Click on any study title to sign up directly, or sign up through this form to join the contact list.
Looking to Learn: Measuring Infants' Curiosity
Age Range: 10 - 13 months*
Babies are naturally curious about learning about the world around them. In this study, we are studying curiosity by tracking babies' eye gaze: what draws their attention and when do they seek more information? Participation involves a 15 - 30 minute visit to our child-friendly lab, where your baby will watch two short videos with different patterns of objects and shapes while we measure their time looking at the screen.
*Infants between 10 months, 0 days and 13 months, 30 days on the date of the session are welcome to sign up!
Future Studies
If your child is not in the age range for any of our current studies or you would like to be contacted when a new study that your child is eligible for is available, please join our Baby Science contact list. Please click this link to go directly to our contact list sign-up form (mobile-friendly display) or fill out the form directly below!
Our researchers will get in touch with you with study opportunities when we have a study that's the right age range for your child. At that time, we'll provide details about the research study and you can choose whether or not to participate!
Who we are
Social Cognition and Learning Lab
Led by Dr. Lindsey Powell, we study questions like: How do infants and children understand others' goals, emotions, and beliefs about the world? How do they use these states of mind to predict others' behavior? How do infants and children learn about and understand components of social interactions?
Visual Learning Lab
Led by Dr. Bria Long, we study questions like: How do children’s perception and cognition develop? How do we learn to connect incoming patterns of light with our knowledge about objects, their verbal labels, and the categories they belong to? How do we learn to derive visual meaning?
Language and Infant Learning Lab
Led by Dr. Martin Zettersten, we study questions like: How do language and cognition develop? How do children learn new words and concepts? What are the driving factors that motivate learning?