Generally, each session only takes between 30 and 45 minutes to play our two games. During your first visit, we will start by going over the consent form and having you fill out a brief demographic questionnaire in our family room. Then we move on to the games!

Our first game is our “Looking Game” in which your baby watches abstract images pop up on the screen and we see which one they prefer. Then we start playing a pleasant sound when they look at the image they don’t prefer and track how their looking changes. The looking game takes about 5-10 minutes to complete.

Our second game is our “Train Game” in which they sit in front of a train diorama with a big button in front of them. At first the button doesn’t do anything, but after a minute it causes the train to go around the track and turns on the lights in the diorama. In this game we see how their button-pressing changes once it starts to run the train and lights. The train game takes about 6-12 minutes to complete.

After most lab visits there will also be a survey or two for you to fill out that asks what your child has been hearing and doing recently. These can be done at home within a week following the lab visit. The surveys are important because they give added context to the information we get from our games during the session.

Both of these games show us the most basic form of learning in babies, but in different ways!

We offer free parking, and a researcher will be with you to guide you about the campus. If additional children are coming with you, we can provide babysitting in our family room during the session but please tell us ahead of time so we can be prepared with some fun games for them too!

This is a longitudinal study, so you will be asked to come back for multiple visits over your baby’s first two years. The visits are at specific age points for your child (at 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months), so how many sessions you’ll be asked to come back for will depend on when you start.