What do we study?

We study how young children's visual, autonomic, and motor systems interact together and in response to their caregivers to support cognitive development. To do this, we use eye-tracking, audiovisual recordings, cardiorespiratory and motion-sensors, in a naturalistic play setting. We primarily focus on infants 9 to 24 months of age.

Why do we study this?

Infants' interactions with their caregivers are extremely important for their early learning. Although we recognize this, we have limited knowledge about how specific aspects of caregivers' behavior, like their voice, can affect children's physical responses, and in turn, influence their developing language and attention skills.

We seek to uncover which particular aspects of caregivers' voices and behaviors help babies pay attention to and learn the names of objects, as they experience them in real-time.

By doing this, our ultimate goal is to reach a wider audience and use our research to create digital assistants that can help babies learn and pay attention to objects in an easy and accessible way.

Firefly infant and their mother sitting across form each other on the floor playing with t