Current In-Person Studies

Causal reasoning in children

Age Range: 17 months - 10 years

In this study, we are investigating how children come to understand cause and effect relationships. We use novel toys and activities to help us learn about how children interpret and infer cause and effect and how this understanding relates to other aspects of cognition. Your child will play between 1-3 games, depending on their age, and will be asked a few questions about each one.

How do young children learn to anticipate social interactions?

Age Range: 3 years - 4 years

We are inviting families with 3–4-year-old children (with and without autism) to participate in a fun brain study at UC San Diego. During this visit, your child will wear a comfortable EEG cap (like a swim cap with sensors) while watching simple images and videos on a screen. This allows us to understand how children’s brains anticipate and respond to social and non-social events.

The visit lasts about 2–2.5 hours, includes breaks, and is designed to be engaging and child-friendly. Families will receive compensation for their time. Thanks for helping us better understand early brain development and supporting future approaches to social learning in children!

Children's everyday attention

Age Range: 5 years - 8 years

In this study, we are interested in what things children are looking at in the real-world. What do children pay attention to, for example, when they see videos of people interacting with each other? Participation during the appointment involves a 30–60 minute visit to our lab, where your child will watch short, naturalistic child-friendly videos with animals and people interacting while we measure what things they look at on the screen using an eye-tracker.