Center for Young Children (CYC)

OPT-IN Study Below: The below study uses eyetracking technology and thus, while still being a "minimal risk" study, will need families to "opt-in" to participating by returning a completed consent form either in person or online. 

Project on Children's Word Learning and the Environmental Context of Naturalistic Scenes (Ages 4 & 5 years) 
This project explores how children learn words depending on where they occur. The study involves (1) a parental survey (~10 minutes) and (2) two at-school visits (~30 minutes each). In the first visit, we will assess your child’s general language abilities using standardized instruments. In the second visit, your child will see unfamiliar objects on a screen while learning their names across different rooms of a virtual house (e.g., in a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, a living room). While they listen to the words, an eye-tracker will measure their eye movements to the images on screen. Finally, the parental survey will ask questions about your child's demographics, language experience, and development.
 

Huang Lab Online Consent Form:
Huang Lab Website:

OPT-OUT Studies Below: All children are eligible to participate in the below studies UNLESS families complete an opt-out form indicating that they would NOT like their child to participate. Note that consent forms will still be distributed so that all families have a chance to review each research study and return the study's corresponding demographic survey. 
 

Project on Children's Language Learning (Ages 3-6 years)
These studies help us learn about children's development in understanding language and thinking about the world and others. Each session takes about 15 minutes, and your child may be invited to participate in one or several sessions over the course of the school year. In a session, a researcher will have some stories or a game setup showing in slides on a laptop or with physical props, and we record each child's answers and choices as, for example, Kermit asks for an explanation because he can't see what's on the other side of this wall, or the researcher asks which box the child wants to open after Olaf gave a clue.

Lidz Lab Consent Form: Paper consent forms were distributed during gradual entry.
Lidz Lab OPT-OUT Form:
Lidz Lab Website: 

Precision Memory in Preschoolers (3-5 years)
The purpose of this study is to understand children's precision memory, meaning the ability to distinguish objects that are similar to one another but not exactly the same. The study involves one session (about 15 minutes total) where your child will be presented with a series of pictures and be asked to make a judgement of the pictures (e.g., does the object in the picture belong inside or outside).

Riggins Lab Online Consent Form: 
Riggins Lab OPT-OUT Form:
Riggins Lab Website: 

Project on Social & Executive Learning in Early Childhood Tool (SELECT) (Ages 3-4 years)
This study, in collaboration with Prof. Yang in the HDQM department, explores the relationship between children's flexible social learning skills and their developing executive functions and language skills. Children will complete a series of tasks on an ipad where they will receive various cues such as symbols or word prompts and sort objects. Their performance on these tasks will be compared across conditions. This project participates in the Open Science Framework, meaning that researchers from other programs will have access to data collected in this study. 

Subiaul Lab Consent Form: Online consent form coming soon!
Subiaul Lab OPT-OUT Form: 
Subiaul Lab Website: